Fall for Me
by Donrocs1
Summary: Sequel to 'Talk to Me'- short story of mine. Two years of running around shooting bad guys has led the human vigilante, Glen- and the hybrid Xenomorph, Mariah- to a Weyland Yutani fortress on the planet of Epsilon-Candis, where they hear weird tales of 'Bionic Zombies', and find a small private army trying to either keep them out, or something in. AU
1. Chapter 1

**Fall for Me.**

* * *

 ** _-0-0-0-0-0-_**

 ** _Pres,_**

It was an evasion test.

It was the honing of one's ability to avoid the obstacles, to avoid the endless pits, and to hit the goals that had been put forth.

It was an evasion test. An evasion test that threw the taker through a shadowy corridor with swinging axe blades, and flying bullets, tearing shrapnel and screaming demons. It was a test that would pry the humanity from the toughest of the tough, and transform it into a victual of the depths of hell itself.

It was a test that he had taken over, and over, and over. It was a test that he had passed with flying colors, or barely skimmed to victory by the skin of his teeth.

One after another- he would be dropped into the dark, dank tunnels of a million negative energies trying to rip his soul from his very body. One after another, foes and barricades to success and justice flung themselves in endless arrays of buffers keeping him from the light.

One after another- he surmounted weakness itself and swatted these evils away with vicious accuracy and brute force. In a world of might making right- he had surely honed himself to be strong mentally as much as any physical conditioning.

The evasion tests of his life had been countered and won whenever they propped up. He had beaten them all and pulled a hundred others from suffering a similar trap of never ending destruction like he had been cursed with.

The hands of fate still, though- despite all the victories and the greater enhancements to his being- never relented in plucking him from the very fabric of what made him happy, to drop him into another cave of shadow.

So he would be forced to fight his way out again, and again.

When he had been younger- when he had taken the responsibilities and consequences of what he was doing- he had always feared the possibility of death, as not only the means with which his life goals would never be accomplished...

-He also feared death for the unknown shadow tunnels that it dropped the deceased into- the tunnels that no man or woman had ever swatted aside, or had ever emerged from. Death was the final tunnel, the final cave, the final place of the most unstoppable axe blades and bullets and shrapnel and screaming demons.

It was what would have ceased him being who he was.

But... The problem was, he WAS who he was.

And that meant that death could not claim him until he wanted it to.

And that meant that he could beat death.

And that also, finally, meant... That this kind of situation was technically not plausible for himself.

He may have been able to beat death, and he may not have allowed it to take dominion over him- but with all the pain that had been sapped into his body, his mind, and conscious- the prospect of death was seeming more and more gratifying.

" _Alright now- chopchop! Wake up, my child. Wake up please. Hello? HELLO? I said-_ "

- ** _sssssssssssshhhhhhhhKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK-_**

 ** _-CLKAKAKL-_**

"-AGGGHHH!"

" _-Wake. UP.- I assume you're awake now, yes? Yes? Good._ "

Slumping forwards into the weightless oblivion- the fight now was ever more hopeless in the way it looked overall.

His mind was swimming, life flashing. His determination had twitched- like a stalwart assassin kept his eyes unmoving during a kill -he had faltered with a single twitch, and with the wall of his mental defense fluctuating for even a brief second- the tsunami of pain was allowed access.

As such he ached everywhere. His head was pounding, throat dry, lips dry. He felt disoriented as a energy he could not hope to temper or ward away began to cook his insides- or, at least it FELT like it was cooking his insides. Apparently the doctor hadn't set it to lethal.

It certainly- again -felt like he had set it to lethal.

It was the same argument of someone pulling a magical gun, shooting the victim, and having the bullet only HALF enter the heart, and not making it instant.

Thus forth he quivered, he twitched- he felt cold and then hot, and his body's confusion continuously worked to undo his confidence and assurances.

" _I'm only going to ask a fewest more times before my patience wears thin- and you are irreversibly DEAD, my child._ " A voice filtered into his stasis through a static-laced vox amplifier. " _Where is 'Six'?_ "

His arms were aloft in a 'Crucifix'-like poise- he could not angle his forearm down to imitate the exact gesture he had wanted to present the good doctor with his center finger- but the point got across when he raised his head weakly, and grinned with his still white teeth.

"Six, huh?"

" _Indeed. Six. Where is six?_ "

"You... Wanna' know?"

" _Yes of course, my child. Obviously._ "

"Gofuu."

" _...Go-Fuu?_ "

"Yeah... Planet, nasty place."

" _Go-Fuu, eh, my child? Go-Fuu, right- Go-Fuu is... WHERE?_ "

"Why, it's not even the full name, doctor..."

" _Enlighten me, Go-F-?_ "

"Go-FUCK yourself."

" _Ah. Charming._ "

 ** _-sssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhKKKKKKKKK-_**

 ** _CLAKLCKCLAK_**

"-AAGGHHHH-YOOUU-FUCKKERR! AGH!"

" _Why do you resist? I do not understand, my child! I have offered to take you out of the stasis device if you simply tell me where the experiment is, and I've even offered to take you with me on the journey to apprehend said experiment! You are foolish._ "

"-I-I'M...AGH...-I'm, going to KILL you."

" _You are to be going nowhere. My child, I control you now. ME. You answer to me. You do not answer to your self-made poetic means of justice, or your late progenitors, OR the experiment._ "

"You sick little piece of shit..."

" _Come now, my child, such uncivilized words?_ "

"You sick little piece of SHIT. You've been locked up for so long in the Company's augmentation labs that you practically let them skull-fuck you so they would stop implanting all their bionics into the sensitive parts of your misshapen body.

-When me and that 'Experiment' get out of this place, I'm going to take my sweet time tearing your central spine capacitor out through your mouth. THEN, your little orifice would've served some good measure of purpose before you die."

" _You're too monologue driven, Mr. Hannson._ "

"It's earned me points, shut up and let me out so I can do what I just said."

" _Not a possibility._ "

"Not YET."

" _Noted. You have one more session before I find the experiment by myself._ "

"...Keep talking you bastard..."

" _Perhaps some time to think more logically will set this straight. Fine, Mr. Hannson you've 'Won' for today. Seal the module._ "

The hissing departure of several mag-clamps- darkness folded from both sides of his vision, as his sights through a green-hued screen of plexiglass began to grow smaller, and thinner.

Illuminated by the dull lights of the laboratory outside the device- the sight of a man taller and bulkier than any normal human could ever hope to be- became evident right before the shutters closed him off to any and all recognition.

In the resulting, hollow thud- nothing but quiet resurged into his mind to fill the void that had been made.

Here he sat, in the cylindrical hold of a stasis modulator- arms and legs tethered by graviton wires, body plain and naked- himself hung inside the tube of green plexiglass, and repeatedly electrocuted by flows of concentrated energy that were directed at his nerve endings in his entire organic frame.

Here, Glen Hannson found the one closest instance in his life where that inescapable tunnel would again attempt to claim him.

Here, Glen was tortured, he was interrogated- by none other than the infamous agents of the very faction and organization, the very Company he sought to destroy. He had been in the modulator unit for longer than he could properly remember, and it all started with such a simplistic ideal, and plan, and action that was supposed to go without problem.

-Though, technically, everything he did was supposed to be planned and accurate to avoid problems. It was the nature of who he was and WHAT he was.

Glen was the galaxy's only vigilante against the monsters who continuously battered the innocent and unsuspecting, and whom profited from man's strife and poverty.

Glen fought the REAL monsters- not just the ones they created.

Arguably- the 'Experiment', the one called 'Six', would be dubbed a monster by the rest of humankind.

Arguably, GLEN would be dubbed a monster.

Arguably, Glen had gone so far down the road with not only his hunt against Weyland Yutani- but his partnership with the experiment, that he wasn't warranted to convert any of those things regular people would see- to his giving a damn.

Spitting down at the tank's black, unseen bottom from where he hung- Glen shut his eyes and draped lazily, feeling the graviton-tethers over his wrists and ankles flicker in movement as he shifted his weight.

He found himself dwelling in thought- in wonder at what that 'Experiment' was doing right now.

" _What do you THINK I am doing, you stupid, stupid-STUPID man?_ "

Glen couldn't find the right words when his mental sea of confused thoughts and internal strokes was broken by an outside force. It was broken by THE outside force. The only force that could enter his mind, and would ever enter his mind.

Weak, delirious, and defeated- Glen just raised his head and blinked slowly.

He didn't speak or think anything- he purposefully meant for his mind to go blank.

" _...Did you think I'd just leave...?_ " The voice persisted. " _Glen, please answer me._ "

"..."

" _Glen, please..._ "

"..."

" _...Glen, I need to know you're alright... I need to know that you're alive..._ "

"..."

" _...GLEN... God damn it, Glen! Glen! Answer me!_ "

"..."

" _...I don't understand... Glen, you can't die. I feel you. Y-You aren't-... You can't die! I'LL die!_ "

"...You haven't listened to me a day in either of our lives together... Eh?"

" _...Oh... Oh, Glen..._ "

"Don't worry your sweet little behind off... That fuck hasn't done me in yet..."

" _I'm coming to get you._ "

"Yeah-yeah, do what you got to do..."

" _Stop that. Hang on._ "

"...What's your plan?"

" _Plan?_ "

"There's ALWAYS got to be a plan, Mariah..."

" _Kill everyone I see, get you, haul you back, and kill everyone I see doing that too._ "

"Brilliant."

" _Hold on, Glen. This is going to be a little bumpy._ "

"...Why? Where are you?"

" _There's a magnetic locking mechanism in the ceiling compartment directly above you._ "

"...Aw, hell..."

" _You got a better idea?_ "

"...Nope, I don't."

" _Good. Now be quiet, and watch your head-_ "

"You're sexy when you're pushy."

"- _Delighted to hear that. Your head?_ "

"I'm a little HUNG at the moment..."

" _We'll make due. Ready?_ "

"Uh-huh. Mariah?"

" _Mm?_ "

"Leave a few for me to kill too."

Glen waited all but another moment.

There was an echoing snapping sound of severed metal- screeching of servo gears, flapping of loose nylon line. His world surged downwards, weight pressed into the top of his skull, feet felt like they were made of clay- being pushed into his ankles.

Then the falling stopped- the tank thudded with a crash of cracked steel, hollering men, hissing coolant lines being broken open. Glen thrashed downwards, and the graviton-tethers jerked against his wrists roughly.

"-AGH! Damn!" He swore, gritting his teeth, dangling in the now westward tilted darkness of the tank. Sparks flickered somewhere above his head.

" _I always knew you'd 'Fall for me'- get it?_ " Mariah's silky voice mused in his mind.

"...Less comedy, more break-me-out."

" _Working on it_."

The positive was- the doctor had let his confidence get such the better of him- that not only did the 'Experiment' he sought practically show up on his doorstep- but she showed up on his doorstep a rabid, infuriated mess.

Little to Glen's immediate knowledge- Mariah was angry. VERY angry.

The good doctor had pissed her off more than she had ever been in years at a time. Now, she was going to make him pay by getting Glen out- and the two of them were going to blow shit up.

First, though, she had to get him out of the modulator.

After all, she'd only cut the cables.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

When he was a little boy, he saw many things that children normally didn't see. To the contrary of first impressions of that widely broad fact, these things were good.

He had grown in a family of scientific minds, between parents that found studying the ways of physical reality, the greatest of all passions to inspiration, and expanding of the human soul.

His father took into the mind the way things worked, while his mother took into the mind the way things lived, and they did so together, and they taught their son how to do both sides of a greater tree of knowledge.

Maps of archeological digs, alien mountains and oceans, techniques of cultivating crops no farm ever mass-produced in any colony system, hints of solving mysteries people had spent their lives attempting to, and failing, to answer.

Glen Hannson remembered the moments of his sheltered, early life like yesterday.

He remembered the feeling of no worries, confidence, and brilliance as he unraveled the words of the galaxy at such a young age.

He remembered the interesting coworkers and allies his parents accumulated.

He remembered the interesting coworkers and allies HE had accumulated.

He remembered all of these amazing things that had rendered him a bright, intellectual boy who had the answers to problems so many other beings struggled to cope with and live towards. The ways he wanted to help people, and the techniques he would use to do so.

The pride on his parents' faces when they realized their child would live on to do astonishing things written in the data-logs of millions of other souls...

And then he remembered the sleek, onyx monsters.

And then he remembered how they took his parents and his life from him...

And then he remembered Mariah.

Two years ago, Glen had stumbled onto a greater asset of the Company he waged war against in his quest to end the infamous 'Project Xeno'- in a remote lab on an unnamed world, in untamed and uncivilized wild space.

He had found a 'Super Xeno'- one that was actually successful and hadn't been put down by Weyland Yutani- he had wounded it, the two almost killed each other- and before either could fully grasp what was happening, they were working together to bring down the Company.

For the longest of times she was just 'Xeno', or 'Bug', to him- but eventually, she chose the title of 'Mariah', on the backwater colony of Oorga after their closest brush with death fighting a Necroravager mind-controlled by Weyland agents.

In the two years that had passed- Glen and his Xenomorph had traveled to every corner of the galaxy that he hadn't already frequented- they found all manner of problems across the stars and they worked to fix them.

Yet for all the successes and final victories that had accomplished- it had been a good amount of passage before somewhere like Epsilon-Candis came up to thwart their unbeatable track record.

Liberating impoverished, forgotten colonies from local warlords- Glen and Mariah had been back and forth across a swathe of space, coined the 'Forlorn Stars'- where the fringes of humanity's civilization had colonized without governmental aid or sponsorship.

As such the rat holes that resulted with the new colonies found themselves under slavery from people who organized themselves into independent armies. The warlords had been the main problem in the systems of the Forlorn Stars- so Glen and Mariah had spent a year waging war against them.

After exactly 389 days of killing mercs, warband soldiers, hired guns- blowing up armored commercial vehicles and industrial tractors with AT Plasma Cannons mounted in them- they had finally reached the palace of a warlord named Nigel Ulruno.

Ulruno begged for his life- offered information, and Glen- initially -put down his Braxis Colt pistol, and questioned the warlord on promise of his not being executed.

Nigel told them of a planet far from his homeworld and private kingdom of the forest world Selecruz- of a planet named Epsilon-Candis that was protected by a small contingent of 'Bionic Zombies'- as he claimed.

The warlords of the Forlorn strip hadn't been able to surpass the world's defenses for the few times they'd tried- and according to Nigel, any of the soldiers that died and went unrecovered were added to the defenses as more of these 'Bionic Zombies'.

Glen got star chart information, smiled, and stepped away from Nigel- at least allowing the man the decency to stand, before he shot him in the face and spit on the corpse.

" _I don't like that._ " Was all Mariah commented as he stepped over the cadaver of the warlord. " _He surrendered._ "

"Yeah? Well so did the citizens of the nearby colonies he massacred- tell that to THEM, tell that to the children he had in a sex ring around the palace grounds- tell that to all the widows and the widowers he and his ragtag mob made." Glen ranted. "I feel NOTHING, towards this."

He looked down again, made a point to press the heel of his boot into Nigel's ajar lower mandible- and forced downwards until there was a hollow sounding- **_clk_**.

"NOTHING."

" _...Than I feel nothing to it as well._ "

"I want to leave."

" _To where this time?_ "

"I want to see these 'Bionic Zombies'- fuckhead here was talking about."

" _It's probably another warband, or a chieftain._ "

"Something isn't right about it."

Low and behold- when they landed on Epsilon-Candis, the WY symbol of Weyland Yutani was plastered all over the stone and metal structures of a massive, spanning, fortress built into the side of the planet's largest ravine.

The ravine was called 'Helman's Drop'- named for a famous privateer that killed his entire crew by landing his ship near the starting crevice of the location, that caused a massive landslide that created the modern day ravine.

The Yutani assets running this fortress had built it in a sprawl down the face of the ravine- there were orbital defense cannons that had probably been 'Bought' off of the Navy, as they were old obsolete models from obsolete star ships no longer in service.

Towers with snipers, spotlights- and apparently Type-9 HEATSIG scanners were positioned all over the tops of large, fat, rectangular buildings and on a twenty story wall that rung around the facility's top chin that was like an extension on the rim of the flat terrain outside the ravine.

It looked like someone had taken a metal, robotic, circuitry laden tongue- and had unfurled it over the cliff and down the ravine's face.

For the longest of times they spied on the facility- temporarily abandoning their campaign to liberate the Forlorn Stars- they killed a security patrol and took their I.D cards, and Glen tore open their armor suit's powerpacks to disrupt the alarm signal of their ceased vitals.

Standing from one of the dead soldiers- Glen rolled his head to get out a stiff pull in his neck- he watched the onyx hide of Mariah unfold from a crouch, showing her in a red sheen against the black from the blazing sun overhead.

Looking at him- she held two tiny, blue colored, illuminated chips with a toothy grin from her long, rounded head.

" _Easy._ " She scoffed.

"Until they get their act together- and they will." Glen sighed. "...How's the armor?"

Mariah stretched her neck- giving off a clicking sound of touching synthetic. She shrugged, and her tail flicked to and fro.

" _Still a little stiff._ "

"It'll pass. I can't have you getting killed on me."

" _Yeah... You'd be awfully lonely anyhow._ "

"True. And it's no picnic for me either."

" _Really now?_ "

"Yes."

" _How so?_ "

"I liked it better when you ran around naked all the time."

" _Degenerate._ "

"Yep. Yep I am, my jiggly friend."

 ** _CLACK_**

"-OW!"

-One of the dead soldier's helmets flew out and rebounded off of his head with a hollow hit.

Reeling from the impact with a purposefully exaggerated stagger back- Glen chuckled at the antics and drew his eyes from the haughty Xenomorph.

Mariah and he had become rather closer than he would've initially imagined- it was something that not at all was possible for the regular folk of the galaxy to comprehend, especially since the dreaded 'Xeno Plagues' of 2299.

Mariah was unlike the average drone of her kind in the fact that Weyland thought it would be a smooth idea to combine her with pure strand human DNA- something that overrode the hard-coding of the Xenomorph genes, and wired in independent thought and emotions.

The problem with this revolutionary addition to a Xenomorph soldier- was that they were still treating her like they did the mindless, hive driven beasts that she had been created from.

While in groups, Xenomorphs were the progeny of tactical brilliance and brutal efficiency- on their own, drones were hopeless and unable to prove nearly as much as a threat. Thus, the Company was able to get away with a lot when they were torturing the Xeno's in ones or twos without a Queen nearby.

However- Mariah, 'Six'- as had been her lab number- was not confined to the pheromone locked thought process of the drones. Thus, the constant bodily harm and physiological damage the scientists conducted on her was enough to drive her into more than one rebellious thought.

As such, when Glen broke her out- she had leapt on the opportunity to do the Company harm when it was figured Glen wasn't trying to shoot her, and that he had similar goals in mind to her own.

He had been a means to an end.

Mariah wound up sealing that deal with him in a higher bond than it had ever appeared to angle in- in more ways than one.

It was a lively awakening for her- not so much though, for the red-colored, dusty, backwater terrain of this forsaken planet in their forsaken strip of territory.

Daydreaming briefly- Glen had his thought interrupted by the constant flitter of dusty air caressing the tip of his nose and his cheek bones. He sighed and raised a finger to rub his nostril at the tiny sensation.

All around them- rolling hills of tan-ish red- rock formations miles and miles high made of crimson, dark, blocky stone, and sparse forests of toothpick-like Candis Red Stag trees gridded the less dune-like terrain in disproportionate clumps.

They were two or three miles from the fringes of the Weyland Yutani facility- and even from that distance they could hear the occasional creak of steel machinery, or whoosh of buggy-like 'Dune Crawler' jeeps patrolling the hills.

Glen looked down at the bodies with an annoyed expression- listened to the air for a few moments more, and bent down to one.

Grabbing the loose helmet she'd hit him with- and shouldering the heavy, armored corpse of the man with a few clanks and shuffles- he nodded at Mariah.

"We should hide them- last thing we need is a Crawler to find them and report it."

" _I can agree with that._ "

"First thing's first- we need to map this out."

" _Power supply, power hub, life support, crew quarters, chemical filtering, oxygen filtering, food storage, bridge or auxiliary command- I miss any hotspots?_ "

"...You're good."

The Xenomorph grinned toothily at him as she threw the second dead man over her arm like some cheap ragdoll she'd plucked off the street.

Mariah's prehensile form was now not only obscured- temporarily -by the Weyland casualty- for Glen had made extensive modifications to several pieces of combat ceramic armor to equip her with a makeshift suit.

It had taken a year- in fact, most of the final parts had come from their conflicts against the warbands in the Forlorn expanses- but the pieces all fit together for the kind of acrobatics and quick movement she relied on.

At the end of the configuration- Mariah's onyx colored body was only hinted by her bare upper arms and shoulders, and a slight crease by the collar under the base of her neck. The armor was all kinds of gunmetal and tan hues due to the multi-origins.

She contrasted heavily against the blocky drab-colored combat armor he always wore- with reinforced ceramic plates only breached by jumpsuit towards his joints and neck.

They were both experienced, and they carried equipment around that was both deadly and efficient- but also were tools they had been using for years, thus, they were masterful with them.

Being a sort of 'Duo of Destruction'- Glen and her had paved through the wicked all across the Milky Way- you could see it through not just how they looked, but how they acted and how they thought.

A 'Normal' soldier, after all, would've left the bodies- thinking the sand would cover them up.

Part of the package that made their names feared was the psychological warfare aspect of their occupations. When you shot their friends right in front of them- it frightened the enemy, made him or her brash with anger, and certainly put them on edge- but what amplified that is if their comrades were dropping from gunshots, and also vanishing.

A thing that Glen had found broke the back of the organizations they combated- was that if soldiers were getting whacked left and right, and some were simply disappearing- things went to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.

Good marksmanship was in cohesion with terror tactics- and Mariah had found an excellence in the latter.

Since she was what she was... A Xenomorph- even as an advanced one-she still had the natural drone tactics hardcoded into her mind.

Mariah could slink through the sinewy shadows of dark halls, or ceilings, or air ducts- and with her tail, she could drag foes away, dispatch them- and then return to strike quickly and kill another. She'd repeat the pattern.

In the orbit of a gas giant named Lupos- there had been a Weyland Yutani owned contractor station that was set up to fuel Company owned or sponsored ships passing through the sector- Glen and Mariah landed as stowaways, and found these terror tactics overwhelmingly effective.

In fact- one of the main targets that Glen had wanted to kill- a Head of Services Representative for the Company, named Benjamin Gillson- was shot dead by his rebelling soldiers who were trying to force their way to escape pods.

Through that victory- Glen had become proud at their teamwork, and how the Company's assets crumbled in their wake.

But then- he was brought to realize that the fight had... BOTHERED, Mariah.

She didn't like to talk about it a lot afterwards- she said that the whole thing made her feel like something she wasn't- like a 'Feral of her kind'. Glen respected the animosity behind it, and never spoke of it again when they left the station burning.

However- today, in the sandy crags and depths of Epsilon-Candis, Glen found his thoughts trailing back to that talk they had- trailing back to how she couldn't even think about the things she did on that station, even though it was too a bunch of lowlife Company criminals.

-Having dumped the corpses of the soldiers they'd slain- Glen and her took the first chance to sit down for the entire solar evening in a cool cave that overlooked the farthest drop of the ravine outside, and had the Weyland fortress visible directly across from its position.

They didn't light a fire, or use any electronics- seeing as the light could be seen in the totally dark terrain, and the electronics would give off signals that Company scanners could pick up.

In the gloom that tinged the sand and rock around them midnight blue- Glen took off his helmet, and ran a hand through his hair- hissing in discomfort when grains of sand plicked and scattered down his chest and neck.

"-I'm gonna' be cleaning sand out of my ears for weeks." He complained in a sigh.

" _You think that's punishment? I have an exoskeleton, my human friend. There are notches and crevices EVERYWHERE..."_

Mariah was bent back in a splay atop a pair of boulders towards the rear of the cave- by a small group of canvas totes carrying most of their gear. She was stretching her legs- the right clawed foot extended to the boulder before her- the left, curled under her backside.

She pressed a palm down onto her ankle- and even from where he sat, he heard a joint pop.

" _Oo. Much better._ "

"-You're funny."

" _Why?_ "

"Because you're funny."

" _Why?_ "

"I think you're cute. And the two kind of mesh with me."

" _Funny and cute? Hmm._ "

"Yeah."

He felt her silently step down from the rocks- step over to stand behind him. She knelt, and weight compressed the top of his head- her chin finding a spot directly above his forehead.

Two clawed palms came up and kneaded about his shoulders, and a spined tail curled in an orbit over his ankles and legs, the blade resting by its side on his hip.

" _Talk to me._ " She simply stated.

"About what, my dear?"

" _Anything._ "

"...How are you feeling? Physically? Emotionally?"

" _As good as I'll be._ "

"What does that mean?"

" _Leveled out. Content._ "

"Good."

" _What about you?_ "

"Leveled out."

" _Hmm..._ " She hummed musingly- angling her head lower, she buried her chops into his hair and inhaled slowly. Both of them stared out into the dark blue night outside- broken only by the silvery reflections from the moons of Galatrot and Excelburk, which stood as two white spheres in the sky above.

The sprawling Company facility looked like a landslide of blocky shadows, flickering red and yellow lights- white beams from search towers. An occasional hauler engine hummed from the base, and up into the atmosphere with hollow whispers of clacking.

" _...Are we ever going to go somewhere for us? Not for the Company?_ "

"Like a vacation?"

" _That what you humans call it?_ "

"Yeah. We could use that. I could see if there's any garden planets in wildspace to the north."

" _...Be careful with that, please._ "

"Remember the LAST time we tried to take a break?"

" _Yes. I do._ "

"Right on the landing pad- like a complete dumbass," He recollected his own actions. "-A pirate hideout! HA! And I thought it was a frikkin' travel agency!"

" _...Glen, seriously for a moment- a MOMENT, none more._ "

"-Hm..."

" _You think there's an uncolonized, or lightly colonized greenery world out north? Why not south?_ "

"That takes us by the galactic center. There's no point in traveling across the galaxy."

" _I know, but... Do we have to stop if we come across something?_ "

"...I... I suppose not..."

" _I know it's what you do- it's what WE do. But Glen, I'm feeling lonely. Firefights aren't exactly a place to sit down and talk._ "

"...You're right."

" _I made it sound imposing didn't I?_ "

"No."

" _Than why do you sound like that? Did I say something wrong?_ "

"You never say anything 'Wrong', Mariah," He smiled up at her. "I'm not going to lie and say my work hasn't sucked in much of my life. It's hard for me to just STOP."

" _You deal with powerful things, Glen._ "

"We both do."

" _You've killed a lot more people than I have. You've SAVED an innumerable amount more of people, than I have._ "

"Mariah, it's not just about the life and death... It's the... How do you put it... It's-" He reached up and fiddled with the fingers on her claws with his own by his shoulders. "-It's bathing in that kind of energy. The constant overhanging shadow. Knowing that every pirate I don't stop, will be the nightmare in some village's night, or the rapist of one or more women, or the murderer of one or more civilians, or the ruin to peoples' homes and livelihoods..."

" _You can't kill every bad person in this world, Glen._ "

"-I'm certainly up to trying." He interjected a tad. "I'm not quitting now."

" _Not to act as a sudden intrusion- but, Glen, you want me in your life, yes?_ "

"...Now hold on, this isn't you insinuating about... LEAVING, right? 'Cause where would you go?"

" _No. It's not that. But the answer is yes, right?_ "

"Yes."

" _Then all I can ask, about you 'Not Quitting',_ "

"Mm?"

" _-Is, what about me?_ "

"...What about you?"

" _Where do I fit in with all these wars you want to wage? Glen, I don't want to be bound to you through killing things every day of my life. I want spend it WITH you, not just beside you... Does that make sense? It's hard for me to explain what I'm thinking sometimes..._ "

"It makes sense... You explain things fine, dear."

" _Then... What? What do you think?_ "

"I think I've become fixated on purging something that cannot be purged."

" _When we leave this place, take me with you to somewhere calm and peaceful. I don't want to do this anymore._ "

"...You mean that?"

" _Glen I want to make a home with you. I don't want to do THIS, anymore._ "

"...Okay. Okay, I'll do it."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

She was so right.

He knew she was right.

He knew she was right and he didn't want to except that she was right. It made him angry to think about it not being right.

It made him angry thinking about, the thing he had spent the majority of his adult life committing to- wasn't right, and that it was consuming him and gradually destroying his essence.

Like a succubus would win over its unknowing quarry through seduction and dark magical stuff you read about in the old-Earth folklore- being a vigilante and a dealer of justice where none was dealt, wormed into Glen's mind as a righteous thing that could not simply be dropped.

His duty was not only to himself- for it extended onto the innocent people of the galaxy, and it purveyed into a lifelong goal, that he knew was not possible to achieve, yet he worked to achieve anyway.

Yes, there were evil people that lived on the worlds owned by mankind, and yes- they did evil things to good people, and even to other evil people...

-But no. No, you could not simply 'Remove' the problem like a faulty piece of machinery. You couldn't just kill all of these people.

You couldn't hunt down every single pirate, criminal, crime lord, marauder and slaver that the galaxy sported- kill them, and expect those vacant slots to remain unfilled.

Every second, a terrible thing happened somewhere- and every second, a beautiful thing happened somewhere. That was just how life- even thousands of years later in space, across millions of intergalactic colonies- went.

-But, seeing all the death, the suffering, the strife and poverty... Seeing his home and his parents burned to the ground... It all made just looking at the situation and saying '-I have to live with it'- all but impossible for him.

Whereas Glen had trained himself from adolescence to enact his unbridled anger on those who morally were wrong in society- all he did was fight fire with fire- and no matter how efficiently he did it, no matter how many gangs or mobs he wiped out... Another would pop up somewhere else to take its place.

Crime was like oxygen- where people lived, crime existed, and nothing anyone ever did would make it all go away entirely.

Whereas law enforcement could not totally eradicate it- dealing executions left and right had the same result.

Immediately- the streets were safe after you beheaded the last member of the once strong, vibrant Cartel.

-But the men you killed- their children, their friends, and their family- would all harbor that hatred you had generated, and would nurture it, and would teach it to their children and their children's children- effectively restarting the process you had just snapped off at the neck.

It didn't matter who or what it was, or what it was for- the cartels of the Isslossi Systems, the warbands of the Forlorn Strip, the pirates of the Mara System's asteroid belts, or even Weyland Yutani- evil would always meet its balancing point of continued existence with justice.

It was a teeter-totter- no side could lean more than the other- you couldn't have people, and entirely just one or the other of that totter.

Society didn't click that way.

Glen, even- didn't click that way.

But he had been trying to force two non-connectable magnets together for decades- and he just couldn't stop.

So when Mariah told him what she told him- he was almost to a level, distraught.

That didn't make sense.

Why would she not want this anymore?

More importantly- what would she do if he just disregarded how she felt?

He and the Xenomorph hybrid were- without question -caring for each other, and they had used the special declaration of such through three-worded vocals, many a time.

For the kind of work they did practically every day- they had a healthy relationship, or, at least what THEY would deem healthy. This was seeing as no other bond like this existed anywhere else in the galaxy- Glen just knew it.

It was there between them- the chemistry, the connection, the ability to talk in tune with each other, the striving for the other's happiness, the inability to dwell without the other's company, the physical replication of their spirits through sex- it all existed.

-But what didn't exist, was Glen's perfection of division, with managing his drive for unending vengeance, and his passion for Mariah.

He was stuck in the biggest rut of his life- and he didn't quite know how to sort it all out as of yet.

"-I see it." Glen cut off his own mental wandering- forcing his mouth to work, to speak with his mental uplink to Mariah. "I see those... THINGS, we'd heard of earlier."

Having an unfolded laptop in his lap- Glen had a visual feed being sent directly to the machine via hacked security protocol.

One of the measures that the Weyland mercs here were using, were automated security drones that constantly hovered around the surrounding twenty mile radius of the fortress- they were little remote controlled, propeller-driven robots.

Each bot had three separate cameras, and a small 2mm pulse carbine attachment- thus, Glen had made sure, that when he hacked the drone's camera- he also hacked control of the pulse carbine- all hidden from the security staff who worked the drone net.

He tilted a small stick about to direct the camera of the drone- and through the hazy feed, he saw the contents of one of the varying testing courts that were walled in within the structuring of the exterior fort.

Guards were by every door- and a pair of coat-dressed researchers were using what looked like a portable command console- a computer on hover jets no bigger than his head- to control a file of shuffling monstrosities.

Maybe once, these creatures had been human- but now, they looked so far from the original picture, that Glen could barely see any hint of mankind left within them.

Each one sported a differing array of bionic replacements- but the general status involved wrapping plates of synthetic armor making most of their torsos, thighs, and shoulders- sometimes a limb or two would still be organic, laced with wires and circuit plates.

-But generally, most of their limbs were entirely robotic- and some of them had pulse rifle attachments, and flamethrower nozzles, wired into their wrists and forearms.

These 'Bionic Zombies' all had the top portions of their skull- from the bridge of the nose and up- replaced with red, thin visors over robotic helm caps- or had large, rounded, singular, cyclops-like mechanoid scanners that took up their whole cranium.

They lumbered around in groups or organized lines wherever the researchers directed them to- and the presentation of human experimentation made Glen sick.

" _They are frightening, I'll admit._ " Mariah responded to his report from a mile away- where she hid around the outskirts of one of the security walls- trying to feel about using her mental connections for any sign of other Xenomorphs possibly inside. " _More frightening- is that I can detect no others of my kind in here._ "

"That's odd."

" _Do you think they have set up a procedure or device to block my prying?_ "

"They don't even know you can use telepathy- much less scan around for other Xeno's."

" _...You think this facility has a different purpose?_ "

"I think we see the purpose right in front of us." Glen said grimly. "These bionic people are soldiers. Automated soldiers."

" _Do you think the Company is trying to build an alternative army?_ "

"It's looking like that..."

" _What should we do?_ "

"We should destroy this place."

" _I'll be safe and say you don't have a plan for that, YET?_ "

"If this fortress is so heavily guarded like this... Maybe the mercs' the Company has here, packed some hardware with them."

" _What are we thinking? Demolitions gear? Heavy anti-armor or anti-infantry weapons?_ "

"Mariah, these guys are all ex-defense contractors, pirates, and some of them used to be Navy... I want to see if they have some old colonial garrison equipment lying around."

" _...You mean, like vehicles?_ "

"This is a high-end group, Mariah. We're in the Forlorn Strip- it's not that hard to get your hands on an obsolete light tank or two if you have the cash. They have old capital ship batteries, why not vehicles?"

" _You want to demolish this dump, with a stolen tank? That seems... Like a bad idea._ "

"Not up-front, no... But if they have some, we can use them as PART of the plan." He reached up and killed the hacked link between his computer and the drone. "-Come to me- I have a plan to get the facility specs."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Head swimming, body stinging, muscles feeling wobbly and unjust- he was thoroughly suspended and tied by the grav-tethers, and he was virtually helpless as long as he was in this pod.

The doctor had been working to get him to crack for days, and, up until recently- he had little to no inclination that Mariah had ever been able to get close enough to even interfere with the interrogations.

Glen felt a combination of feelings that- in theory -should've cancelled each other out upon making contact. For one- he felt relieved that there was a chance he WASN'T to die in the doctor's laboratory- but for two, he felt deathly afraid.

He felt deathly afraid for Mariah.

That hybrid was fast- she was wicked fast- she'd outran bullets in the past... But, going head first into a fortified Yutani fortress to get him and tug him out while under fire? Their chances were slim. And if anything- Glen would sooner let himself perish to see her safe.

There was only one light that was in that dark pit of his inner person- and that was Mariah, if that light went out- the darkness would have him. Glen didn't want that- he most assuredly couldn't live with himself if Mariah died and he didn't.

It was so comedic, in a philosophical and spiritual sense- that he felt this strongly for one of the creatures that firstly ruined his very life, and in his eyes- HIM as a person.

Glen always grinned whenever he thought about that particular twist of fate- but all he could do was shut his eyes in a quick inhale in compensation for a sigh- as, deep breaths hurt. Sirens and shouting muffled outside the containment unit- he heard the repeated metallic rattling of a pulse rifle discharging.

"-M-Mariah? A-Are you alright...?" He drawled. "Mariah... Hey...?"

" _I'm fine. Pinned._ " She struggled to communicate, sounding stressed, obviously. " _Hang on._ "

Glen lowered his head and started praying for her.

She could NOT die instead of him. He cursed at whatever higher powers existed- he became angry, and thought forceful things he did not entirely mean.

 _You kill ME. Me. Not her._

 _If there's one to die- it is ME. I won't let you take her. You kill ME._

Glen didn't want either of them to die.

But if it came down to a moment of sacrifice... He wasn't going to hesitate to take that fall.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Every now and again, these big honkin' gates on the westward flank of the fortress would creak, groan, and part in blasts of steam and noisy metal- and from within the depths of the facility, a Crawler Buggy would drive out into the sands to begin its daily sweep.

What exactly the Company was so worried about in its patrols here was beyond him- but if Glen didn't know any better- he'd sooner say these extra security activities were specifically for him and Mariah.

It was too bad- that no matter what Weyland did- he would make their lives hell.

So- the Buggy would leave the base- one of those commercial models that had been in manufacture almost since the colonization of space began- modernized with retrofitted military computers, optics, and a heavy pulse turret mounted in a cupola on the top rear.

The vehicle and its three man crew would drive rounds all over the outskirts of the base- and the cycle would repeated every day. Glen knew that the mercs and Company guards had different shifts- such so that there were different staffs of soldiers at night, than at day.

It allowed Glen to start digging through some of the security files he hacked from both the drone, and a close uplink to the fort's patrol garrison command centers deep within the walls.

They were unbelievably lucky so far in that no one in the entire area had spotted them yet, and that no suspicion had been raised. Lucky for them that Mariah was as good as she was at being quiet- and that he knew where to hang out for the right amount of time.

They set up a bait for one of the passing Buggies- using a helmet and pulse rifle from the guards they had claimed victim days earlier- Glen stuck the gun through the dusty red sand by its barrel- laid the helmet on top of the butt.

Undoubtedly- someone saw it in one of the Buggy teams- and so the sleek, open-topped vehicle swerved off of its route, and started beelining for the items they'd placed.

Hiding behind a crag of rocks- Glen squinted under his helmet's foldable visor as dust whipped about and tinted everything tan/red. Wisps of sandy, airborne tendrils caressed from the tops of the rocks they hid behind, over their heads.

"-They saw it." He said down to his hip- where Mariah crouched- looking up at him.

" _You think they'll actually get out of the Buggy?_ "

"Let's hope..." Glen sat back down- nodded at her. "Alright, let's do this."

Vanishing in a blur of black motion- Mariah scrabbled up the rocks to his immediate left- like a ramp, using them to hide in a overhanging perch of the formation's tallest face.

Rocky pieces drew like lain arms all over the desert terrain- this one had been tall enough at its flank, that they found it perfect for an ambush point. Scouting around and examining the desert for the last few days had highlighted some sights for them.

Using what they had determined as appropriate- Mariah was going to jump into the Buggy from above, when Glen gave off the confirmation to attack- by killing anyone who exited the Buggy.

And Glen was going to do that, with an old tool of war he owned.

Reaching to the magnetic sling over his back- Glen drew a long, wooden-stocked gun from its place there, and yanked back an outdated loading bolt to slide in a blocky clip of rounds.

He smiled down at the rifle- because this was the same Proton Hunting Rifle he had first used in his makeshift anti-gang wars as a teenager.

The weapon held strong for him for decades- now, worlds away, years away- he was using it as a professional soldier. Amazing, at least to himself.

"I should've named it 'Old Ironsides' or something..." He muttered- standing, his smile fading.

Pluming a thick limb of tan, globular smoke from its rear- a pair of fat, rubberized tires drew a wavering path of uneven teeth through the course, red sand towards their hiding spot. The vehicle bucked and hopped over rolling dune faces- one of the crew was hanging out in a tensed lean over the pulse turret in the rear.

Glen licked his lips- and coughed a second later when the tinge of soil hit his tongue.

"-Ugh- this place is HORRIBLE." He grumbled.

" _Perfect waste-dump for a crazy maniac to set up shop?_ "

"Yes." Glen said. "You ready?"

" _All I have to do is jump, land, and start tearing- it'll be easy._ "

"Keep it careful."

" _Yes I will._ "

"Wait for my shot."

Glen chanced keeping his head elevated above the crag of the rocks- from where he was, in relation to the rifle and helmet setup- he was almost a half-mile from where the Buggy was to pull over, and, that was assuming that the crew did what they WANTED them to do.

When it came to killing people- it was never as quick and efficient as the action vids, or the holo-books, or the stories made it seem- things went off course, not according to plan, and it got messy really fast the longer it drew out.

Having the reaction timing and the ability to make choices in the seconds that they unfolded- were essential to keep that racing game of whose clock was turning faster, on top for your side.

Glen should've put it this way-

If the soldiers in the Crawler Buggy did what most people who sighted something on the side of, say, an urban road would do- they would pull up next to it, and someone would get out- or at least lean out, to look at it.

Thus- the vehicle was in such proximity now- that Glen could hear the engine growling, and the internal suspension squeaking with each rise and fall of the terrain.

He bit his tongue lightly- reached up, and slowly drew his finger over a folded reticule tab that was bolted into the top of the gun's main bulk- right before the start of the barrel.

Hunkering down as flat as he could- Glen lined up the passenger side opening of the vehicle- remembered the turret cupola with a raised brow- and instead lined up the guy behind the pulse gun as a last ditch target.

-If he couldn't kill one of the operators- he would at least be able to take out the heavy weapon, and that would help them greatly if this turned into a firefight.

If this went their way, though- they would kill all three of them quickly, and would be able to get what they wanted before lots of shooting- and lots of noise -happened.

 ** _vvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVMMMM- CRRK_**

-The Buggy drove through a last swathe of sand, bucked to a stop right before the trophy display he'd made- causing a final tendril of dust to belch out from under the front, armored bumper, the wheels loosing trails of sand from their ridges and hubcaps.

The Company- or, maybe it was all the mercs' -that had retrofitted this thing were certainly skilled engineers, or had skilled engineers in their employment.

The commercial vehicle was up-armored with wrapping sleeves of synthetic plating over the quad-arches that covered the cabin and front seats- a windshield made of chemically fused- 'Hydrolumia'- essentially, translucent aluminum- bulged over the front of the Buggy.

Duckbill links were worked in patterned strips over the rubberized tires- ceramic additions painted gunmetal had been built into and around the titanium bumper- and the cupola was surrounded by a thin bubble-half of hydrolumia sheet- and it was sponson mounted, which meant the gunner could turn in a 360' degree angle to fire the bulky turret.

The whole thing was painted over gray drab and gunmetal- it looked like a nasty infantry support piece.

Glen watched the turret operator from his distance- and from the looks of it, the boy looked more concerned with keeping sand off his helmet's combat visor than the attention given to the gun and helm outside the Buggy.

A soldier got out of the passenger side- unfurling from the internal hold of the Buggy like a shadow person to contrast against the tan backdrop and dunes. His black colored armor moved about with stiff motions as he grabbed the upper rung of the passenger arch- and hopped out into the sand.

His boots left oval-shaped imprints in the dusty ground- a small sliver of tan whipped away in the wind each time his heels rose from their falls.

He had a blocky sidearm in his left hand- and he was radioing something in via internal uplink- Glen could hear him faintly talking.

The soldier walked over to the rifle jutting from the sand, stopped his walk- and nudged it with his foot- grunting when the helmet leaned on top of it fell off with a kick into the dust.

Glen had the man lined with his iron sights- and then, he saw the driver lean out from the cabin, and call out to his buddy still hanging by the bait.

Glen found himself catching his sights in between the two men.

Kill the driver? Or kill the guy out in the open?

Glen made one of his infamous split-second choices here. He weighed the two.

-Kill the guy out in the open, and render the turret gunner and the driver able to react, and those two controlled two of the essential pieces in this engagement. If the Buggy got away- they could kiss their stealthy advantage goodbye. If the turret opened up on his position- he'd be pinned and unable to help Mariah if she engaged.

-Kill the driver- render the Buggy dead in the water, leave the gunner exposed for Mariah- as, she NEVER missed a mark when it came to leaping or jumping- and only have to worry about the exposed foe shooting at his covered position with a pistol at long range.

Glen chose for the latter option. He'd rather deal with a handgun than a turret and a moving anti-infantry vehicle.

Closing his left eye- he moved the sights of his gun up- found a mark, settled, and fired.

 ** _CLENK_**

-The heavy charged Proton round whipped out in a small flash, and the driver of the Buggy- literally 'Flapped' as Glen would later recall- from the driver's compartment, with a visible string of crimson trailing from his head.

Glen almost snickered at his luck. Headshot.

When the shot rang out- the two other soldiers stood dumbfounded- the guy by the bait spun around, saw his driver flopping dead on the sand outside by the side of the Crawler- and held up his pistol.

The turret operator obviously had either better sense- or perhaps better eyes- he jabbed a finger over the hydrolumia sheet on the cupola for Glen's boulders- and yanked back the loading mechanism for the pulse turret.

Glen went wide eyed- and the soldier out in the open turned back with the pistol raised, and flaring.

 ** _CLK CLK CLK_**

"-Shit!"

 ** _CWM CM FLK_**

-Three plumages of dust burped from the edge of the rock as he got his head down in a crouch behind the stone.

Noting the lack of turret support- Glen stood up to return fire- and smiled when he saw a onyx-colored shape careen from atop the rocks nearby- and land directly dead-center the top of the Buggy's cupola.

The gunner screamed and hollered, and the Crawler shook violently for a second- he could see Mariah's sharp tail finish trailing inside the vehicle after her like a serpent whipping back down into a cave opening.

Another pistol round flew nearby- and Glen saw the soldier had fallen to a crouch- unloading the rest of his magazine- fruitlessly, of course.

The effort was laughable- Glen aimed down the sights of his Proton rifle lastly-

 ** _CLK_**

-And a shining, miniature comet flew out- the man kicked back with a hand by his helmet's visor- convulsed once in the sand, and died with a 'Dust-Angel'-like disturbance in the course dune around his body.

Blowing out held in breath- Glen stood up and grabbed hold of the rock's ridge with his gloved hand.

"-Mariah?" He asked, hopping over the rocks, and sliding down a indent of sand towards the Buggy. "Mariah, answer me- you alright?"

" _...I'm covered in blood AGAIN._ " Her mental speech trailed- agitated. " _I want a bath this time. The operation can wait- the female needs a damn bath._ "

"...Ha..." Glen breathed, jogging up to the dead soldier he had shot- and nudging the corpse with the barrel of his gun. "-Guess I can't come between a girl and her hygiene."

Mariah unfurled from the top-rear cupola, sitting on the rim of the opening, she held up her claws in exaggerated dismay to her face- her tail uncoiling from inside the Buggy, to whip behind her.

" _I look terrible._ "

"You hit his jugular or something?"

" _I just tore him up. Does it MATTER where I used the claws?_ "

"Yeah... Good work."

" _Nice shot, before._ "

"Thanks."

" _The plan now?_ "

"We got our facility specs."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Here was an interesting 'Loop Hole'- if you will- that Glen had found.

Whoever the armed contractors were that the Company had hired for their little projects of bionic human experimentation on Epsilon-Candis- had divided the men they had stationed here in a division-grade scale.

There were- on paper, at least- two entire companies of recon Buggies, and two more companies of infantry, followed by a heavy weapons attachment. It was good advice to take it as these boys meant business- but what bothered Glen was that they were a group he had never heard of before.

Actually, Glen couldn't even trace a name of the organization- all the information pointed to Weyland Yutani itself- and unless the Company was indeed building themselves an entire army, there was no way that they would be able to tote around this much equipment without the Navy seeing it.

Of course- there was always the horror in assuming, that the Company had someone, or several people, in the Navy bought out- which, with Weyland's credits, could be done to prey upon people's greed, and if Glen had learned anything from the Navy- it was that they were as much prone to corruption as anyone else.

Maybe- just maybe, this WAS as bad as it looked.

If these mercenaries weren't hired- but actually employed by Weyland Yutani- that meant that they were stepping up their game. There were signs all over this facility that the Company assets here were preparing for what appeared a war of some kind.

Lances of bionic soldiers? A personal army? Division levels for that army? All that was missing were self-reliant logistics and aircraft. Who knew- those things might have already started, and they just hadn't seen it yet.

So far the only aerial equipment Glen had laid eyes on were supply haulers- and some of them, not shockingly, but still disturbing all the same- were marked with logos and callsigns of commercial and industrial enterprises on the border colonies towards the south of the Forlorn Strip.

-Some of those corporations weren't even military related... There had been a hauler from 'AnsigCo. Farms'- and, what the hell were a bunch of organic food distributors doing at a Weyland facility?

Things like that showed all the more why the Company needed to be exterminated.

Bad shit.

-But on that loophole with the divisions that the soldiers had made for themselves.

Glen had found that there were 'Hq' Radio vehicles headed in pairs at the center of the recon Buggy battalions- and they carried long range communications stations that were uplinked to all the Buggies in that respective unit at once, AND back to the fortress base.

Glen had found- that using his hacking terminal on long range communications could actually extend the range and reduce 'Noise' to draw suspicion from firewalls when he was hacking into opposing data streams.

Glen wanted to see if he could hack at least a schematic- and if time and circumstances allowed, maybe even a data file on the activity reports inside the fortress.

When he had climbed into the driver side of the Buggy- he was made to crinkle his nose in distaste to the dead turret gunner having been shoved and clawed to death in the back of the Buggy- his throat was a big, crimson trench that dug away into his collar, and there were drying contrails of brownish-red fingering all down the rear cupola's inside rim.

Mariah had a sneer on her features as she sat in the passenger side- and waited patiently as he got out, and dumped the body outside the Crawler's flank.

Huffing from the effort- Glen rolled a last trailing leg out of his grasp- and clapped his gloves together, standing over the small pile of three dead they had created. He left them behind a few tall rocks- stepped back up the Buggy, and crawled in under the top rung on the driver's side.

"-Hopefully we'll be gone by the time someone finds 'em." He said. "There's nowhere else to put them."

" _Speaking of,_ " Mariah had a angled tone to her mental speech- it SOUNDED like she was sneering in her mind too from all the blood on her. " _What are we doing with the Buggy, after?_ "

"We should destroy it."

" _Can't we use it?_ "

"There's probably a tracker on this thing- I just want to hack the signal, and I want to burn it. Then we need to relocate."

" _They'll know we're here._ "

Glen mulled on that.

...Well, they were going to find out sooner or later, might as well have them find out by the time they learned vital information.

It was better than being discovered without a plan even.

"Yes. They will."

" _Okay._ " The Xenomorph leant back into the passenger rubberized seat- she pressed her head back, and made a sighing sound, folding her claws over her lap. " _This heat is horrific._ "

"Good thing we have cooling gel in the suits than. See? Technology isn't all bad." Glen laughed- having unfolded the laptop console over his legs- he typed diligently, reached up to the back of the computer, and unfolded a bipod-like antenna that pointed straight for the dashboard of the Buggy's driver cab.

Mariah watched him silently, with a bit of intrigue- he got into the connection with the radio uplink, and fooled the recognition programs into thinking it was establishing antenna connection with the fort.

Glen typed quietly and diligently for several minutes- Mariah becoming bored, and crossing her ankles together- her tail made plastic-like thuds as it jerked a few times in quick sways behind her in a curl over the seat's rear.

"I'm in." Glen grinned. "Got past the firewall- I'm connecting to... Something..."

" _Something?_ " Mariah chuckled. " _You don't know what it even is?_ "

"Unknown data stream. Could be important, like a direct connection to another Company base out there- or completely worthless, like an infinet connection a guard on break setup to look at porn."

" _...Porn?_ "

"-Right. Don't ask. It was just a joke."

" _...That's, that dirty stuff you told me about, right?_ "

"It's bad for you, forget I ever mentioned it."

" _Wouldn't we be technically... DOING porn?_ "

"-Uhm- I guess," He shook his head with a nervous laugh. "-If we were filming it- which, ISN'T happening, dear."

" _You're right, it is not happening. -Hasn't happened for months._ " She noted with a bit of venom. " _Just putting that out there- seeing as our only company is a few corpses nearby._ "

"This REALLY isn't the time to be talking about this." Glen grumbled- suddenly getting a vibe he used to experience with melo-drama as a young adult when it came to school crushes.

" _I don't know when else I can get to talk about it._ " Mariah said factually. " _All we do is sleep, eat, piss, spy on people, kill people- then spy some more, and the cycle repeats._ "

"-C-Can this, please, PLEASE wait?" Glen was becoming angry- trying his best to burn holes in the laptop screen as he finalized the uplink. "I promise I'll hear you with this later- but this is important."

" _...That's what you always FUCKING say..._ "

-Glen wasn't so sure that that bout of mental speech was directed at him, he kind of just heard it- like someone would hear someone mumbling in the next room.

The connection between their minds was pretty established and strong by this point. Sometimes, when Mariah wasn't purposefully reading his thoughts- (Which she did every so often- thus, Glen had many embarrassing jokes mounted against him) -she would think to herself, and Glen had found he could hear bits and pieces of it.

Since he had gotten so used to hearing her voice in his head- the random times a mutter or a little word or two to herself would pop up, didn't peak his concern anymore than, as exampled before- hearing a relative mumble to themselves nearby.

-But with that newfound ability he had gathered- whenever they disagreed, it was almost impossible to think something different than what they were saying- seeing as, in their conversations- saying and thinking were the same thing.

Glen was rubbing the chin of his helmet as the uplink finalized- and he pulled up a search in the scanning protocol.

He typed in random codes he remembered from other Yutani specs he had hacked- and eventually, after a few empty results, he came across a single tab- it was hardcoded, and was actually a fragment of a larger database.

Glen opened it- and was shown exactly what he was looking for.

A architectural schematic popped up- black background, green lines tracing all the shapes and walls- he snapped his fingers, and wailed on the 'DOWNLOAD' key on his laptop with a laugh.

"Ha! I got it, you bastards! They are SCREWED." He turned to look Mariah- who was now more preoccupied glaring out the side opening of the passenger compartment, than too him. "-I got the layout, Mariah."

" _Mm._ "

"That's good."

" _Yes. Now are we attacking this instant, or later?_ "

"...I have to scan through this stuff first-"

" _-Meet you back at the cave. Take the buggy out for me, will you?_ "

 ** _FWM-CRK-CRK_**

-Mariah vanished out of the side of the Buggy- she did so fast enough that the vehicle nudged back and forth lightly.

Having his eyes glued to the dead-looking dunes that shown through the oval-like open side of the chassis- Glen drummed his glove's fingers on the laptop's sides, and slowly turned back to finish his hacking.

He scrounged up a report on a large hangar bay in the schematics- and the equipment total showed inventory of three M-88 'Hydra Fiends', which, were old as dirt, obsolete tanks that had been used by the Navy nearly eighty years ago.

Glen had discovered what he was hoping for- and the days of anxiousness were now met in relief, with little relief at all. His grin died as soon as it appeared, and he started staring angrily at the laptop screen whilst his emotions flared his temper.

He cut the link quickly, before it could be analyzed- and shut the computer.

Sighing- he crawled out of the Buggy- stood in the sand outside the cabin, and fumbled about is belt until he found an all-too-familiar plasma explosive hung with the assortment of weapons down there.

He activated the rune- underhanded it lazily into the rear of the vehicle, where it vanished inside with a few clanks and hollow tunes.

Stepping down the dune- Glen was still grim, and un-phased when the Buggy jumped in a green burst of light, and shrunk down onto its belly a flaming, black-belching mess.

 _I have to apologize to her. She's right. I'm becoming something I'm not._

Glen frowned and felt a dreadful pit when he thought of his mother and father's faces- a blackened strip of metal landed in a small wave with a **_PWK_** \- inches behind him. A tan wave of sand flurried over the rear of his armor suit's legs- and Glen didn't even notice any of it.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Mariah was always the best when it came to acrobatics, speed, agility- there wasn't an obstacle course in the galaxy, or a test of fast travelling through terrain on any world- that she could not pass with flying colors.

Mariah had used vines to cover terrain over jungles- rock overhangs as bridges over blazing hot deserts and crashing oceans- she'd jumped from rooftop to rooftop in urban settings, and had even leapt from falling pieces of debris to reach certain places.

She could scale anything- but she couldn't DODGE everything. Especially if the thing she was trying to dodge, was technologically designed to make a person's speed obsolete.

Wincing from a flare by her right arm- she uncovered her claw and hissed at the neon green coating her palm had- she glared at a small fissure that drew in the green illumination down her upper arm in a horizontal groove.

The pulse round had grazed her- and she had been lucky, because her armor had warded off three other hits beforehand when she had been caught in the open.

She was on a raised level in the passage's interior- there were bulkheads lining the hall she stood in down both ways- and, compressed to the front of a thick console railing- below her was the lower hall adjacent to this one, and there were at least six mercenary grunts covering her position from down there.

The pulse rounds had stopped licking off the railing, and she could hear shuffling movement- she didn't take advantage of the slacked fire because they probably had their sights trained on her position- if she moved they'd get good aimed shots at her.

Glancing upwards- she saw the piped, wire-laden panel ceiling above- and there were tons of nooks and crannies thick in metal enough that she could be safe from the pulse rifles- the problem was, she had to reach them before she got hit.

The longer she sat here, she knew- the more of a chance something like-

 ** _PLNK_**

 ** _PLNK PLNK_**

-Like THAT would happen.

Mariah's angled head snapped wildly to fixate on a metallic, rounded object that landed on the decking right before her.

The armed fragmentation grenade sat still for no more than a millisecond- before the blade of her tail lashed out, and flicked the explosive over her head, and over the railing in scooping motion.

'- _Oh shit_!' -Came from the lower level before the grenade went off.

 ** _CLAK_**

 ** _-SSSSSSH_**

-That sound bursts of fire made, she HATED that sound as much as the actual clap- when the explosion receded, and smoke and burnt ozone was all that remained.

She took the moment to leap for the ceiling- and within seconds, her tail had just finished clambering up past a shaft tube when a couple of rounds flickered away in her vacant space.

Clawing to hold onto a rounded pipe- Mariah found a leverage point for both feet and palms- she 'Doggy-Paddled' through the wires and block-structuring- keeping quick glances down at the soldiers who had lost sights on her.

She was utterly quiet as she traversed the structure of the ceiling- her mind was blared on red thoughts, anger, absolute rage.

These freaks had destroyed hers, and Glen's lives- and now, they had been torturing him for... For who KNEW how long.

She was going to kill every single one of them.

There were no survivors here- all walking dead men.

Snarling- she drew back her chops and bore the array of sword-like teeth in her mouth. Looping over a last branching pipe- she descended from above- and coming closer to her vision rapidly was not only the chrome floor- but the head of the soldier in the rear ranks on the lower level.

She landed with a clattering of synthetic and ceramic- the guy screamed terribly, and it drowned away in a snapping crackle of wet chokes.

His buddies spun around and sprayed the whole area- but Mariah was already a black blur crawling back up to the ceiling via wall. The pulse rounds punched everywhere- they shredded the still twitching body of the man who had had his throat torn out- they specked the floor and the wall and the ceiling.

The Xenomorph hybrid was gone as fast as she appeared.

The soldiers tried to group themselves together- they huddled in the center of the hallway- it proved to her, as she shook her claws a few times to fleck some crimson from them- that the Company was starting to develop tactics against HER specifically.

-Another thing she and Glen had caused- infantry reformation. Maybe these Company soldiers, and the bionic soldiers- were less about creating a new army- but a new security force to stop THEM.

Having her train of thought interrupted- she hissed lowly when the flaring pain by her arm slithered into her nerves again- hiding in the ceiling vents.

When she had cut Glen's pod down- the scientists in the room hadn't been the problem- but, as she finished ending the last white-coat- a whole security team barged in and started shooting anything that moved- including a pair of scientists that scrambled away from her, towards them.

She bolted- got wounded, and now they had pushed her a whole hallway back.

She wanted to kill them- by the almighty powers she wanted to KILL them...

But if the doctor came back for Glen while he was vulnerable like that...

-No-no. Glen was more important than her need to kill the Yutani mercs. She breathed heavily once- sighing. Her tail lashed out- and a grated panel was eviscerated in two peeling halves with a flicker of sparks.

No sooner did she slip inside the shaft- did pulse rounds pummel the shaft entry and the panels around.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	2. Chapter 2

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Glen had to squint through the starlight above to see properly with all the haze, and the brightness that agitated his eyes- even with the environmentally reflective visor on his helmet.

He blink-activated several extra filters to try and mitigate the effect Epsilon-Candis' star was blaring into his sights- there were tiny hums of moving electronics, and the visor changed a few shades of gray and un-saturated blue.

He found a preset he could bare- locked it with another blink- and leant back again to continue his observation.

Snaking through a few cragged half-arcs of rock, behind a towering stone stack, and over the chin of a tumbled, long dried and stilled landslide incline, the fortified gates of the Weyland Yutani facility stood in their grayed, rusty glory.

Two large stylized logos of the Company- yellow, black-edged 'WY's were on each door drawing from hinge to hinge.

The walls that drew away from the blocky gate arch in both directions were dotted with the scanner-equipped security towers they had seen earlier- two of the retrofitted naval cannons observed earlier were partially seeable from behind the wall- their barrels slightly protruding over the top rim.

From this distance, the gates and walls looked short- but in reality, once you got close, the realization of their several stories in height would be known. Even now- two dots of black drew twin trails of bulbous dust behind them- a pair of Buggies driving past the gate towards the east.

Glen had only been watching the gates for the last few minutes- he knew already that the superstructure was a drop-down base- basically, the 'Doors' slid down into holding compartment slots beneath the ground for entry and sealing.

That made it harder to get inside with a hack, or even a frontal assault- drop-down doors were always tougher to break through than sliding doors, or doors that were literally hinged like ones you'd find in an old 21st century house.

Thus, when Mariah told him what she did- he was ecstatic at what she had found.

-But in addition, he was also apprehensive of it.

" _There's a waste vent... There's ALWAYS a waste vent._ "

"-Aw, God- we gotta' trudge through Weyland's shit again?"

" _I found it. It's in the place nobody would look of course. And because they think like we do- it's defended._ "

"What age have we come to, where manholes have guns protecting them?"

" _I don't know, what would you call it?_ "

"-Modern warfare."

" _It's nothing we can't handle. I scoped it._ "

"Scoped it?"

" _Yes._ "

"Sentry guns?"

" _Sentry guns._ "

"It's ALWAYS Sentry guns..."

-Actually, that had been the most he had been able to get out of her other than the few single-word answers and statements she'd been force feeding him over the last day.

The little exchange in the Buggy- in the only way they could have it, sitting in a hijacked anti-personnel vehicle, whilst Glen was hacking a multi-trillion credit-spent protection system of an intergalactic monopoly- and, there just happened to be a dead guy in the backseat.

Lovely shit for a blossoming couple indeed.

And that precisely was Mariah's point. She wanted out. Ironically- the one who had been genetically altered first by unknown forces, and then by Yutani to become the ultimate bio-weapon- wanted to STOP being a weapon.

So, Glen wasn't feeling the same kind of passion as he usually was today- he felt sluggish, droopy- even when it called for attention the fact they were shooting at people and those people were shooting back- Glen felt like a cubicle lackey showing up early for office hours without a cup of caffeine.

He granted himself one last glance at the gate and its surroundings- huffed, and glanced back down towards his feet to regain the sort of uncomfortable, slight twist in his innards at what he saw.

Just because Glen had been observing that gate- didn't mean he had set up shop and started scoping out in a pre-determined nest or lookout point.

He had been halfway through a controlled descent on his grapple line- and below him, blurred by his retinas brief focus on the toes of his boots- was a hundred stories of dropping height that would lead to a lethal tumble over miles and miles of jagged, sprawling stone.

The ravine was dark and shadowy in its malformed depths- like a series of intertwining trenches- Glen had been in high places beforehand, and so these heights weren't exactly staggering or detrimental to his mind or ethic.

However, no matter how many times he tugged on death's pant leg with a dumbass grin on his face- he always got that vibe of tension, of dread. It was inevitable- you could AVOID death, but you could never avoid death's overhanging presence.

And speaking of overhanging...

"-You said this thing was on a plateau?" Glen spoke as he slid down the grapple line more. "I don't see it!"

" _It's right below us._ " Mariah sighed- crawling past him on the surface of the rock nearby.

Glen stared with a bit of apprehension to the Xenomorph and her armored form slithering by like she was swimming through water, with absolutely no difficulty.

He gazed up at the protruding chin of the cliff face above- seeing the winding black cable that made his tether vanishing in a silvery grapple head that was magnetic to the stake he had placed up there. The cable wound to a M8 Type Mountain Infantry Waist Gauntlet- a fancy name for an armored suit addition that had a cable wind on the tail bone plate, and a tube for the cable to snake through that drew across the user's waist like a belt.

The M8 was a good uniform add-on- Glen had had this one for a year, seeing as the last one had been broken in half when he fell off a rooftop- his buttocks was literally saved when the cable wheel on the tail of the M8 shattered and broke his fall.

Despite not being able to sit down for a week- Glen had an appreciation for the thing- it was sturdy, did its job and it did well.

He'd asked if Mariah could've done what she normally did- just wrap him under an arm and carry him the rest of the climb- but this time around, SHE was the one who told him to go scratch.

Mariah was angry at him- could you not tell?

"-Below us..." He grunted- sliding down with a **_WSSHSHH-_** and catching the heels of his combat boots onto the rock he faced to break the descent.

" _Below us._ " Mariah sighed- crawling past him to his left again as he literally made no lee-way in getting ahead of her. She didn't even look at him.

"-I said we'd TALK about it, damn it." He brought it up- ignoring the social avoidance. "When I had the chance."

" _You had a chance yesterday._ "

"No I didn't! You would've tore my nuts off if I tried to talk to you!"

" _... You think I'd... DO that?_ "

God damn her fuzziness with human figurative speech.

God damn it.

"-NO. It's not literal!"

" _Nope. Locking it. I'm done._ "

"Don't just cut me off like that-"

" _I'm not doing this now._ "

"I hope that was in the context of THIS, and not killin' the Company below us..."

" _You have this immaculate way of getting me angrier, and angrier._ "

"-Dad always said I was good with a shovel in the garden at home."

" _Just shut up._ "

"-Mariah, c'mon-!"

" _No._ "

"Yes."

" _No._ "

"Yes."

" _NO._ "

"YEAH."

" _NO!_ "

"-For Christ's sake! Would you just hear me-WHOA! OHSHIT!"

 ** _CRK_**

-Glen's recent grapple movement landed him directly on a jagged piece of stone that was sticking out from a relatively smoothed portion of surface.

The second his foot landed on it- it cracked, and pebbles got tossed from its underside- the stone snapped off like a branch would a tree, and it tumbled down with a few distant clacks. Glen's foot slipped with it, and he caught himself with the grapple line and his other foot remaining secured.

"-CRAP! CRAP!" He hissed- leg dangling before he shoved the heel against the flat of the rock. "That was-CLOSE."

" _...You, are a complete, ASSHOLE._ "

See, Glen hadn't really... NEEDED, all that exaggerated limb flailing, and, maybe the snapping rock wasn't as sudden as it was made out to be...

So, when he recovered as fast as he did- Mariah saw through the childish ploy for her attention instantly.

There she was, clinging to the rocks, with her tail outstretched to catch him by its side- she grumbled and grit her teeth when he sat up there grinning dumbly down at her.

"-I'm okay!" He chuckled.

" _Just keep digging... Please, just keep doing it._ "

"Why dig when I can fall to my death?"

" _GLEN._ "

"Oh no! I'm slipping! Won't somebody save me?"

Glen purposefully let his foot slide against the rock- and he lowered another few inches down, the cable making a rubbery swing, dust cascading from his heels that ground to the stone.

Mariah side-crawled to avoid some of the trailing clouds of tan and pebbles- she kept her tail leveled there even though she kind of didn't WANT too, because she knew Glen wouldn't be so stupid as to really let himself fall...

...Right?

"Holy crap- lookout! I think I'm gonna' lose my footing!"

" _GLEN. STOP._ "

"Oh God, the tether slipped from my hands!"

" _Glen I said STOP!_ "

 ** _WHK-!_**

 ** _WSSSSHSHHHHH-_**

"-AAAHHHHHHHH!" Glen was almost laughing when he let the chord free from his gloves- and he instinctively reached behind him to grab the safety lever on the line wheel by the waist of his armor plating.

The line wobbled and swung as he fell- purposefully jutting his right arm into the air to simulate panic- wind rushed by his ears and his cheek bones, Glen descended for little more than a second before a rough impact jolted him from the air.

Mariah's onyx form was in his face- his head thwacking against the side of her chest armor- she curled her arms over him and snatched him up in a great leap upwards. They landed, and she huffed from the effort- rear claws catching in the rocky surface, one of her palms holding onto a jutting stalagmite's side.

Glen felt stilled, and compressed- he nudged his nose past her right breast plate to watch a final crescendo of pebbles flick down the inclines below.

Snickering- he brought his eyes upwards to see the hint of Mariah's chin angled down at him.

"Hi, dear." He greeted, muffled with his mouth covered by the synthetic metal of her suit.

The Xenomorph's arm swung upwards- Glen felt his head rush- and she propped him up to lean against her waist and the stalagmite to his back.

Even expressionless- Glen could see the built up rage making her chops quiver, and her teeth unveil as they curled back. Her long, black head was tilted to the side, and she was growling at him.

As if under the delusion that pointing out so would alleviate her fury- he pointed down at the stupid little M8 unit over his hips, and then at the cable now snaking behind him in a drag across the stalagmite's side over his shoulder.

"Attached cable, nifty, eh?"

Mariah glanced at him, and then at the M8 back and forth a few times- she twitched, with all the anger piling up- opened her jaws, and her inner mouth flicked out in what looked like an angle for his head.

Glen went wide-eyed and flinched when it flew past his ear and temple, and into the rock behind his cranium- actually giving off a stone-sounding **_CRAK!_** -and sending pebbles flittering over his shoulder.

Taking a look at the new indented spider-crack she'd made in the rock- he turned around and smiled like a complete asshole.

"Hi, dear."

" _Do you think... THIS, is going to make me feel better?_ "

"-Indirectly."

" _You have no conception how to deal with a female. And that's saying a lot, seeing as I'm not your average one in the first place._ "

"Ouch, my pride."

" _I should drop you._ "

"That would hurt. A lot."

" _I hate you._ "

"Happy day."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Corporal Jom already, to be frank- was in a pretty crappy mood by the time he had spent four hours sitting in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do, and nothing to keep him company except the swiveling robotic mantles of a bunch of auto cannons.

Clad in the standard ceramic suit of combat armor his boys were operating in- breathing stuffy, and a little claustrophobic within the breather mask installed in the chin of his helmet, vision fading whilst he dozed for a second- Jom was about ready to shoot himself from the sheer boredom.

He leant up against a stood cargo container- an old thing that had been dropped from a passing hauler God-who-knows how long ago, and had been left to gather dust, because it wasn't important enough to send anything to retrieve.

It was twice as tall and wide as he was- it was half-buried in the sandy earth beneath his boots, and it had become tanned with months of sand-washing underneath the storms that bracketed Epsilon-Candis' surface.

Jom was told that any entryway into the facility was vital for protective service- and that knowledge made him wonder, that why, if the scientists were so concerned with such meager openings... That they had allotted him such a crappy security staff.

It was only him. Him and a control tablet for the three pulse turrets that were stationed on tripod mounts in a ring, around the stone archway of a metal drainage pipe, that jutted slightly from under the chin of the archway's top.

Diseased looking water leaked from within the grate cover- plopped and spattered onto the dusty ground, and formed a green trail that slithered underneath the tripod of the central turret in the ring, and fell off the face of the cliff ahead.

The only way to reach this plateau was by aerial or space craft- and, the only people WITH those things, were him and his boys.

-So, even though the Company was mitigated to providing substantial resources to low-risk probabilities... He could've at least used someone with an AT weapon if they couldn't afford anything else.

But no, it was him, the whining turrets- the plopping sludge that always vomited from the grate behind him. The sound it made, a sickly- **_PLP PLP-PLP PLLLP PLP PLP_** -had almost driven him insane over the last few days he had been put here.

This was because he hadn't seen any action yet- the Captain was just giving him a rookie test- 'If the guy can handle a drainage pipe, maybe I'll let him in on the fireteam next combat sit'.'-sort of thing.

"Fuck him..." Jom muttered for the thirtieth time today- possibly the thousandth, overall.

 ** _PLP PLP PLPLLP_**

-The drain picked up runoff at that second- a bubble popped from the grate, more liquid than usual spattered onto the ground. Damn thing had farted at him or something.

"...Yeah, fuck you too." He spat at the pipe.

This was great- now he was talking to objects. Merry stuff.

Hefting his pulse rifle- he grumbled- watching the three pulse turrets move back and forth, scanning for... Whatever.

He was trying his best to think about other things- the credits he'd get by the end of this tour, they would be unbelievable- the Company was hiring armies, the pay was- rather, HAD to be, good.

Jom watched the dead sky- feeling drool gather on the crease of his lips.

He just needed money, that was all- that would make him feel less miserable. Money and alcohol, the good stuff.

 ** _CLK!_**

"-AH! Hey-! Who the FUCK?!"

-A foreign object had clapped off the top of his helmet- rolled over his head, and clattered onto the ground where it repugnantly splashed onto the edge of the green trail coming from the spatter pool that the drain pipe was leaking.

He held the top of his helmet- lazing his rifle one-handed, and bent down to examine the fallen thing.

It was a rock. Cracked. Freshly cracked.

Tiny pittering and pattering from dust crumbling over the back of his armor, and the big, old stowage crate he had been against- he gasped, spiraled around, and looked stupidly at the rising cliff just behind the box.

Nothing. Of course there was nothing directly over the pipe's archway.

So he'd look higher.

Jom knew his shit- there wasn't ANYTHING here on Epsilon-Candis- the biggest dust-bowl in the system, a place where not even bacteria could survive fully without-

-And... Holy crap, were those people that were hanging by a rope up there?

"Oh my God..." He muttered- raising his rifle.

An armored man- not one of his boys-tangled up with a... With a big, onyx-colored THING... Hey... He had seen that in pics somewhere... Something the Company had shown his barracks block... Something...

"A-Alien, Alien-NO-No no... Xeno... Holy crap, XENO'!" Jom fumbled with his communications link on his helmet, he didn't even think to activate the turrets from his tablet by his waist.

-0-0-0-0-0-

" _Can we please just... DO this, and forget the whole thing?_ "

"I said I would talk to you."

" _You've BEEN._ "

"...I'm actually gonna' do what I'm supposed to do this time."

" _...Glen, I... I... This isn't funny._ "

"...Alright, alright... I was... I just wanted to break this ice we made- that I made."

" _You promise we'll talk about it?_ "

"I promise."

" _...Okay..._ "

 ** _crrssssh_**

"-Yep! Command? I got a bug and some freak whose hugging the fuckin' thing! Should I shoot 'em?"

Mariah cast her glance downwards- she frowned, and made a mental gasp.

" _Oh no._ "

"NOT GOOD!" Glen cried, grabbing her by the waist- he yanked her back with his body weight- legs kicking off the cliff face.

The armored merc below jolted in sudden movement when they shifted position- he was still talking on his communicator.

"-WHO?! Aw-aw hell-!" He aimed up with his pulse rifle, and fired.

 ** _PFFFFFTTT_**

-The mechanical spraying flare of the weapon screeched up- yellow highlighted rounds screamed towards them.

Glen- still tethered to the M8's chord- swung behind the jutting stalagmite that they had been leaning against for traction- right as the chord whined, and they lurched behind it- the rounds followed them and impacted uselessly on the other side of the stone.

Feeling the weight falling to whichever side of their body was facing the next swinging path- Glen held onto the Xenomorph hybrid tightly- they started to swing back- back out from behind the stalagmite.

"-OoooOOoOOoooh-SHHHIIITT!" Glen cursed.

" _I blame YOU for this!_ " Mariah scolded. " _You dumbass!_ "

"-LESS CHAT-! MORE NOT-DYING!"

They soared in a dangling pass from the stalagmite- traveling alongside the cliff face.

The merc below them fired again from the little protrusion he was based on- rounds clipped into the stone behind them- fate was kind, and they swung behind another jutting slab of rock from the jagged side of the cliff.

The rounds reached their speed just as they vanished behind the slab.

 ** _PWK PWK PFFEW!_**

-They all kicked dust uselessly on the other side.

"-H-HOLD ON-! GETTING MY GUN!" Glen sputtered. "-I SAID HOLD ON!"

" _I'm trying!"_

Mariah wrapped her arms over his head to get a grip on the climbing tether- her forearm covered his helm's visor- and Glen cursed his mouth off as he grabbed his Braxis Colt from its holster.

"- _GDD-DAMM-ITT-!_ " -He muffled. He aimed the pistol downwards- fired off three shots in the general angle he had seen the soldier below when they swung out from the slab.

 ** _CLAK CLAK CLK_**

"-AGH!"

-Down below, a round caught Corporal Jom in the shoulder- he reeled back, holding a now red welt that tore clean through the jumpsuit underneath his ceramic plate- cursing the thinly dispersed protection.

Falling to a knee- he watched Glen and Mariah swing back behind the stalagmite above- went to pick up his gun one-handed, and saw that he had drained the clip.

He fumbled with his good arm to grab up his tablet- the turrets behind him were still facing the wrong way.

"-N-NO! ARM-UP-MORE!" Glen struggled.

" _I'm working on it!_ "

Mariah's arm cleared his visor's space for an instant- when they dangled back from behind the stalagmite- he aimed the Braxis, and fired twice more.

 ** _CLAK CLAK_**

-One round missed completely, the other clipped into Corporal Jom's helmet, center the cranium.

Jom felt all the sensation in his physical body flow away at once- then he saw blackness. He fell face first onto the dusty ground with a choking garble.

"Wow..." Glen sighed- pushing out with his feet- he was aided when Mariah lashed out her own heels, and the two of them stopped their pendulum act by skittering to a halt on the cliff face next to them. Mariah was growling at him, and he flashed her a smile under his helm.

"...See that- we're alive."

" _I still hate you._ "

"'Love you too, dear."

Reaching down to the M8- Glen cranked the wheel for the roller, and they started lowering down the rocky side.

-0-0-0-0-0-

He hit the merc dead-center, headshot- the boy was a bleeder, his skull cracked open underneath the helmet like a pumpkin getting hit with a magnum round. It didn't entirely shatter, but it just blew apart in the area impacted, sort of thing.

Glen repugnantly grimaced at the sight, nudging the soldier's shoulder with his boot- the corpse jerked under the movement, arms sprawled.

Glancing back up he saw Mariah doing her utmost best to keep one boot opposite the other in a wide arc over the nasty trail of green slime that was flowing from the drainage pipe that they- or, rather Glen -had shot this poor slob to get too.

Her claws were dug into either side of the grated panel that capped the pipe- she tugged, and metal croaked in a hollow thrum that echoed down the pipe's interior.

Grunting with hissing breath- she grew frustrated at the resistance the flimsy thing was putting up- her tail was whipping back and forth.

"...You... Need any help?"

" _I'M. FINE._ " She sounded stressed. Glen really shouldn't have pulled that before.

He felt the weight of the M8 unit over his hips.

Sighing, he turned back to the still active pulse turrets- their targeting perimeters still having them scan the opposite direction, facing AWAY from the drainage pipe in a west, north and east tripod for the three guns.

They all ran on a control tablet that Glen knew the guy he'd shot had- and, relinquishing the corpse of said tablet- he was still trying to figure out the locking codes to access the turret's control panels. These weren't in-field Navy-issue pulse turrets, so there wasn't an open laptop lying around for any marine to use- these things were hardcoded.

Again. More hacking.

Glen HATED hacking.

He was still sitting on the ground with his laptop unfolded in his hip- a connection port was hooked up to the side of the little silvery tablet- still reading the WY symbol of the company on its back panel- his fingers were typing away.

He tried to simply bypass the firewall- couldn't, and grew annoyed -so he resorted to simply smashing through it, and, if this had been a server or a supercomputer he was hacking- everyone in the entire Company would've been made aware of that.

There was a tug of steel behind him- a screeching tear, and the sound of hot sparks flickering away off the ground.

" _Ha._ " Mariah stated triumphantly- leaning back, underhand supporting the torn asunder, circular grate panel that was as tall as she was.

The Xenomorph leaned her head over the panel's side, and grinned wickedly at him when he turned to look.

"Put that down before you hurt your pretty little self."

" _I'm too good to be done in by a piece of metal, DEAR._ " She scoffed, letting the large cap fall face-first onto the ground with a resounding **_BANG_**.

When the dust plumage was still clearing- Glen sighed, and regained his concentration- fingers dabbling again.

" _What is that you're doing?_ " Mariah asked, not even looking at him- and peering into the dark recesses of the pipe.

"Trying to reverse these turret's bio-sigs."

" _...So they'll be hostile to Company assets?_ "

"Yep."

" _That seems difficult to achieve._ "

"Tell me about it... -Doesn't that wreak? Overwhelmingly?"

" _What, the pipe tunnel?_ "

"-Yeah?"

" _I don't have a nose._ "

"...Welp', shit's creak for me."

" _If you say so._ "

"...Holy shit, I'm in."

" _That was fast._ " Mariah turned around, her tail swaying more timidly, slowly. " _Are you sure it was accurate?_ "

"I may hate hacking, but I understand it too well," He assured, leaning back from the laptop, pointing at the screen and the big green block with one of the turret's callsign codes labeled blue. "I have them under my code, it's just a question of reprogramming their targeting."

" _Do we have time for you to do that?_ "

"If it covers our backs from Company soldiers, I would say we should make that time."

" _You're confident?_ "

"Why so timid about it?"

" _I've been timid about many things as of late..._ " The Xenomorph huffed. " _I cannot wait to burn this scrapyard and leave._ "

"You and me both." Glen responded- eyes narrowed, finger once more fighting the good coded fight. "-I'm deactivating... NOW."

He clicked a key on the laptop- and Mariah looked up as the three turrets made tiny humming sounds, followed by three individual bleeps of computer shut down.

The barrels and gun bodies lowered- the tripods whirred, the scanning lights shut off and the ACTIVE red blip on the turrets' rears went dark.

Glen laughed and resumed typing.

"I'm gettin' the hang of this."

" _Very skilled, Glen._ "

"It's all about the bytes." He joked, clicking keys, not looking up. "I'm almost done, I have to run a separate command line for this..."

" _How did you get into so much military hardware, and not computers?_ "

"...Uhm, what's the difference in this day and age, Mariah?"

" _-I mean with simply programs, and coding. Why all the guns?_ "

"Computers can make it easier to reach people to kill- guns are used to actually kill them, and I had a big blacklist. I still kind of do."

" _Do you still fight them because of your parents?_ "

"...I'll admit," He faltered with typing for a moment- glancing up at her as she came to stand beside his sitting form. "It's become less and less about them. Now, I just want to kill them because they're pieces of garbage."

" _Is there any other reason, though? You never really talk about our motives, anymore..._ "

"Mariah, I mean... What IS our motive? How is it different than what it's been?"

" _But what has it been?_ "

"Saving innocent people, thwarting the acts of evil no one else can thwart?"

" _Is that really it, though?_ "

"...Do you think it's something else?"

" _...I don't know._ " She shrugged, elongated head turning away. " _...I think we've turned into really angry people, Glen._ "

"..."

" _Do you know what I mean?_ "

"...Yeah..."

" _-Well, you said we'd talk about it..._ "

"...Yeah."

" _Let's plant a tactical or two and go, I want to leave._ " She chuckled.

"I wish we HAD a tactical." Glen laughed. "-Uhm, you know what?"

" _What's that?_ "

"You know, I love you a whole lot, right? Like, I'll die, if you die... Okay?"

" _...I love you too._ "

"Just, whenever I say stupid shit that I don't mean- just know I'm gonna' feel those burns later on, alright?"

" _I don't want you to feel any burns of any sort, Glen. I want both of us to be happy. We've been denied that so long._ "

"Well, I don't know," Glen clicked another key- the turrets ahead whined back to life, and their scanners came online for the barrels to start swiveling back and forth once more. "-All this military hardware is pretty smile-inducing. The next mercs through here are gonna' be mince meat."

" _Delightful, my expert little hacker._ "

"Know it, dear."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Glen secured the rebreather section of his helmet with a few turns of a pair of tightening servos on each side of the jaw-plate of the headwear, hearing the confirming hiss of sanctioned oxygen- the suit's overhead display in his visor actually got a tad brighter as less battery power was in use.

The suit mainly kept him alive through a chemical oxygen filter- as, Epsilon-Candis had oxygen in its atmosphere, there just wasn't enough of it, and it was mixed with toxic gaseous concoctions- thus, people couldn't just walk around and breathe on the planet's surface without equipment.

He forgot exactly what the gases were that he had read about- the few scientific data gathered and made public before Weyland took up shop and shut down any other activity on the world- all pointed to a 'Bacterial Cocktail' of gases that made it heaven for microorganisms, but hell for people.

That was why when they had first landed- he was afraid to have Mariah walking around without some kind of oxygen filter, or mask, or even a big helmet- she insisted that it made no difference, and, behold- she had been operating finely for days as such.

Xenomorphs had biogenetically engineered bodies to begin with- and one of those engineered properties, or- rather, one of those PARTS- were their very lungs.

Xenomorph lungs underwent small sub-mutations whenever the drone in question was dropped or released into a new environment with different atmospheric properties- the lungs would actually shift around their genetic makeup to process different gases instead of oxygen.

Glen had once landed on some backwater planet named Norlo- it was a world with bioluminescent fungi as its main plant life, and there were scavenger creatures and insect life- that all breathed hydrogen.

He never expected the oxygen-sealed Weyland base there to have been locked down as it currently was- and it turned out, that as he foolishly walked out in the open in the surrounding fungus forests, that the base had purposefully shut itself down during a testing procedure.

That testing procedure, just happened to be around the lines of- 'Release the Queen and Drones, let's see how they adapt in this new biome.'

-Oh poor Glen... He remembered how close he came to having to change his shorts.

The Xenomorphs adapted alright- in fact, he had been forced on the run by an entire colony of hydrogen-breathing Xeno freaks, that in addition to being able to survive and fight on Norlo's surface- had found a way to make more drones without using the bodies of other creatures.

That whole thing had been a mess- but, it was awfully satisfying blowing the Queen's head off with an AT Cannon, that he would admit.

Glen folded the front of his combat shotgun down to check the two rounds inside- nostalgically dwelling on the weapon for all but a second, before slacking it closed again.

Mariah stood next to him, leaned on the side of the pipe opposite him- she was flexing her fingers, all ten of them- the claws on their tops sheathing and unsheathing.

"I'll go first." Glen said, stepping up onto the rim of the pipe's circular portal- grimacing when his boot dug into the green muck dripping from the chin. "Ugh."

" _Shouldn't I go first? I AM the one covered in natural blades._ "

"Yeah, well I'm the slob with the shotgun- it would suck if I had to shoot around you in that cramped space."

" _...Good point._ "

"It'll work."

" _I know, I know..._ "

He thanked the lord above for the helmet he had on this moment- the smell must have been overpowering, to things already overpowering.

The thin vein of green muck trailed deep into the shadowy warren of the pipe- eventually vanishing deep in the dark- Glen sighed, lifted himself up with a gauntlet and boot, and was standing in the mouth of the pipe- crouched, shotgun aimed.

"Here I go." He muttered.

" _Right behind you._ "

The air became thicker- his HUD complained of the rising temperature and moistness with tiny red sigils. He reached up and flicked on the nightvision filter of his visor, hearing a tiny **_WIIIM_** -as the darkness flittered away for a green-tinted clarity.

His boots made small, hollow clunks against the pipe- his back ached already from the crouched advance he was forced into.

He blinked in a startled manner when Mariah leapt up into the pipe behind him- crouched and bunched up- her tail staying raised to avoid dragging through the muck that was between both their boot sets in a tiny river.

Glen kept his shotgun aimed forwards- scanning.

The pipe was just a straight shot until they eventually worked up to a three-way intersection- with the left and right sides, being pipes that went UP, and these portals they were seeing were just the runoff. Luckily, the warren began to expand to more and more after they moved past the two portals.

" _I'm going to develop some kind of a cramp after this..._ " Mariah muttered behind him.

"I'll give you a massage."

" _Mmmm..._ "

"You like that idea?"

" _Yes._ "

"I see something."

Up ahead- there was a wall- and at first, it didn't look like it was feasibly the right size for the kind of passage they were in- but, the pipe started to expand more- and Glen was actually able to stand up.

Emerging from the port arch- he felt his back snap a bit, and Mariah flung herself out from the warren, by his side, where she gave off an exasperated exhale of relief.

" _Thank God for that..._ " She sighed, stretching her arms over her head- her tail twitched erratically as she did so.

Holding his shotgun lower- Glen examined a stone breakage in the metal commonality they had been trekking through- there was a glass-encased worklight that was flickering weakly above their heads in this square, rusty chamber.

The stone wall ahead had a rough-looking ladder going up- and when Glen followed it with his eyes- he saw it lead up to some kind of a flat surface, a plateau, or a platform that was supported by this stone wall.

Rolling his jaw- he looked down at the floor- suddenly remembering the green sludge trickling down their pipe entrance- he was confused at first to where the source was- but, when he examined the center of the chamber, he was a little intimidated by what he gathered.

The entire center of the chamber was stained with this green goop- there was a small puddle, that was leaking a thin little river off an indent in the floor, towards the pipe they had just walked through.

Glen looked at both sides of the chamber- and he noticed that these 'Walls' looked awfully indented, and far from a straight line in their connection to the stone plat that capped the north.

Were those... Gates?

"You know what, let's get up that ladder, now." He said- pointing. "I don't like this."

" _Hold on, I'll check up there._ "

Glen had already put his boot on one of the rungs of the ladder- stepping over the green slime in the center of the chamber- he watched the onyx shadow of Mariah sail over his head, and the Xenomorph scrabble up to the top of the stone wall soundlessly.

Marveling at it with a shake of his head- Glen waited momentarily- holstering his gun, gripping the top rung of where he stood with his gauntlets.

" _There's a hatch here._ " Mariah confirmed from above. " _Locked. But all's safe._ "

"Alright here I come-"

 ** _CLNK_**

 ** _CLKN-CLM_**

 ** _CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK_**

-Glen's eyes went wide- he turned to the left, and then to the right- there had been a thudding report from both those directions.

Walls indeed, these were not- his hunch had proven itself correct again, but at the worst of times.

The sound of a crank wheel clicking repeatedly in a turn came from all four hinges of the gradually lowering gates- their rusty, slimy, metal surfaces descending into the floor of the chamber- them rattling and jerking in movement.

Glen watched the gate doors lower into their storage slots beneath the flooring- then, he looked back at what they had been sealing, on both sides with quick turns of his head.

Now, on either side of him, were concrete tunnels that were slick with brown and green sludge, all across their ceilings and walls and floors.

Cringing, he heard the one thing that could've possibly been the scariest noise out of this whole week on Epsilon-Candis.

 ** _SHHHWWMMM_**

 ** _WHHMMMM_**

 ** _-BMMM_**

-Rushing water.

-And not just any kind of rushing water... Rushing water, in that there was so much of it, that it was roaring, and crashing, and tumbling in a tsunami towards him.

He had his eyes on the tunnel to the right- and his jaw dropped when the darkness in there was broken by a gigantic, pulsating, waving, and slapping about mass of green ooze that descended in a torrential overflow from the tunnel.

The ocean's worth of toxic waste surged alarmingly fast down towards the chamber he was still standing in like a dumbstruck moron.

He heard that noise coming from the tunnel on the other side too.

Huh.

This wasn't agreeable.

"NOT GOOD!" He barked- frantically scrabbling up more rungs of the ladder. "-HOLY CRAP- NOT GOOD!"

" _What happened?! What's- OH, God-damn!_ " Mariah's head appeared above him- she looked both directions- and then down to him. " _I got you!_ "

Glen felt his weight shift about disproportionately- he was lifted clear off the ladder rungs- Mariah's tail shooting down past his helmet's visor, wrapping over his midsection.

Mariah hauled him up a few- grabbed him with her claws, and through herself away from the stone chin of the platform.

They landed in a clatter of gear, plating, and their arms enwrapped- they ducked their heads when a scream of massed liquid clapped down below- green sludge getting kicked all over, and thrown against the metal chamber.

Licks of the stuff dropped and lightly splashed on the stone by where the ladder had ended- the flickering tiny worklight in the metal chamber went dark- and the world was nothing but a metallic roar of surging waves.

In a few seconds, the noise stopped- the sludge made a few more plopping sounds, and sloshes.

Glen opened his eyes, and looked at the Xenomorph above him- she was curled up over him, head bowed- she turned from his collar to look at his visor- smiling with her razor sharp teeth.

There was the horrid sound of a drainage system going to work- the sloppy filtering of the ooze getting sent down the pipe they had just traversed through- they were lucky they had gotten through it that quick.

Unfurling from him- Mariah stood up in a flash- reached down and took up his gauntlet to help him to a full stand.

He dusted his breastplate off, and then he reached over and dusted her shoulders off.

Mariah looked at the draining level of the green muck down in the metal chamber ahead- then at him, and made a tiny telepathic laugh.

" _What is this?_ " She chuckled, repeating his light dusting motion with her claw on his chest.

"-Making sure you're nice and spiffy?" He shrugged. "Close call."

" _Let's not do that again._ "

"Agreed."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	3. Chapter 3

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

With metallic thuds, groans, shifts and bucks that echoed down the square tunnel- her limbs were in perfect unison of a combination of a quadruped sprint, and the accuracy and nimbleness of a primate.

Her body had been genetically modified to be exactly that- perfect -in nearly every situation that involved muscular strength, endurance, agility or speed- a perfect predator who could do perfect things. The Company had been the one to design her species' inner workings, and the things that made them tick.

It must have been an awful slap in the face when it turned out that most of the casualties, disruptions, and losses in the last few years dealt to Weyland, were all because of an organism that THEY had made.

She wondered if there were executives, or division CEOs, or maybe even down to some of the security sergeants that made up the command staff running the Company on the ground itself- that would grow pale faced when they heard of a report, or news that she and Glen were the ones they were dealing with.

She knew, that the Company knew Glen's identity- and she also knew that Weyland was fully aware that their most recent divergence of pattern and goal with the Xeno Project, had been the act which had created her.

The Company was going to lengths unmeasured to capture or kill the two of them- and, now it appeared that they had half accomplished that goal. It was up to her to get Glen out of the containment pod, but in order for her to come even close to doing that, she needed to dodge or wipe out this infantry screen.

The Company soldiers were good- that was something of a rarity- usually, when the combat became sustained and they started taking casualties, a lot of the security staffs would break, and their combined arms effort would fold like a cheap lawn chair.

But here, even though she had killed a bunch of them, and caused chaos in their ranks and coordination- the officers leading the individual squads were keeping their guys together, and she just couldn't get a better angle under the constant suppressive fire.

She had to keep relocating- they had already chased her in three circles around the same chamber- and she'd been confined to the air ducts and ceiling panels to avoid most of the pulse fire. This was bad- she couldn't imagine it being any good to have Glen sitting in the destroyed pod like this for this long.

Eventually, the game of cat and mouse drew to standstill- the Xenomorph was able to remain in one section of a shaft, panting from all the running, the climbing, the wild sprinting- her reptilian jaws were parted, breath blasting between her fangs.

Below herself she could hear the clomping of heavy boots against the decking of the floor, barking sergeants, bulkheads hissing open and shutting. The Yutani soldiers were relocating, and she couldn't determine where.

She was caught in a three way intersection of the shaft network- there was a chute that shot up to blackness right over her prehensile head, and there was a way forwards and back behind from where she had come from- it was dark, with slivers of light trailing from the way ahead.

" _-Glen, how are you holding up? Glen?_ "

" _-I'm just dandy in here, mortally wounded and all._ " -He responded in her head.

" _WHAT?!_ "

" _Joking._ "

" _-You make me sick..._ "

" _If wanting to throw up on me makes you find me faster, than I'm fine with that..._ "

" _These goons have me pinned in the air ducts..._ "

" _...Ugh... Where are you?_ "

" _U-Uhm,_ " Mariah looked around herself, pressing her palms onto the steel, giving herself a canine stance in preparation for a run. " _-Three way intersection, way up, back and forward._ "

" _...We had specs of this shit..._ "

" _G-Glen, I-I can't remember them._ "

" _...Hold on... I think I can... I can-WALK-ACK!-FUCK!_ "

" _Glen?! Don't hurt yourself if you can't move! I'm coming!_ "

" _-I-I'm gonna'... GUIDE you..._ " He snorted. " _...Looks like all these fella's took off... Console's right over here..._ "

" _What kind of console?_ "

" _Master console, exactly what I need._ "

" _...W-Well?_ "

" _Wait._ "

" _..._ "

" _...Go up._ "

" _Up?_ "

" _Up, you heard me._ "

" _But there's light up ahead._ "

" _Leads to a discharge vent, you'll fall into a chamber swarming with twenty armed men. GO UP._ "

" _Here I go._ "

The Xenomorph leapt up, wrapped her fingers on the surface of the chute pointing up from where she was- she tugged down, and Mariah catapulted into the shadows above, her limbs scrambling, tail swinging behind her, a serpent that vanished around each bend shortly after she did.

The chute was one way, it went left, and then it curled right, she saw a porthole cut into the right there that lead to another tunnel.

" _-Glen? Should I take the right?_ "

" _No, keep following the line._ "

" _But I'm heading AWAY from you!_ "

" _Keep following it._ "

" _Ugh!_ "

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

Glen shivered in the cold air of the laboratory, hunched over an expansive keypad, with six smaller screens presented above it, divided from a large central monitor just above them.

The chamber was rectangular around him, filled with mist, that was illuminated bright blue occasionally from the sparking debris of the ruined stasis pod that had fallen from the center ceiling, and had smashed into the ring of consoles at the room's floor level zenith.

The chamber was layered, it had three higher levels of computer terminals and holographic display tables that formed elevated rings of technology extending to the edges of the towering, plated walls that hexagonally sealed the room from the rest of the facility.

Previously, scientists of the Weyland teams had populated the chamber thoroughly, and some of them had been killed, rendered as mangled bodies among the plates and pieces of debris that the pod had cast everywhere.

" _-Should I take the left now?_ "

"No," Glen answered readily, using an analog diode to trace the red outline of the facility's on-record utilities veins, he found the intersection she had reached, saw that the line kept going, and then stopped for a vent. "-Keep going until you reach a vent, break through it."

" _Where will it drop to?_ "

"It's looking like a security kiosk, it might have people in it, if you clear it and take the door to the south, it'll lead to one of the capillary booths in my lab here."

" _Here I come._ "

Glen hissed in pain from a developing bruise that extended all the way down his ribs on his right flank- the fall having jostled him around a bit when the pod had cracked open. From the looks of it, and, how he felt overall- there hadn't been any bone breakage, but this would hurt for a few days with how hard he had tumbled.

He grit his teeth and swept his hand in a light rub over his bare side, glancing around the chamber, squinting to try and pierce through the mist swirling about and covering the joint.

He was stark naked, standing in the middle of a facility crawling with people who were trying to kill him, and he had lost all of his weapons, all of his gear- he had no way to defend himself.

"C'mon, Mariah..." He mumbled, looking back at the console, his fingers glided over the keyboard, he accessed one of the monitors once he had deemed his guide to his Xeno sufficient for her passing to him.

He brought up a live feed from one of the security recorder bulbs on the ceiling of a nearby chamber, he saw it wasn't the one he was looking for. He creased his lip, and hit the 'Next' key a few times, cycling through colored feeds of rooms either devoid of movement, or being passed through by clusters of soldiers.

Glen shook his head as he searched for the right camera, bending over the keyboard to watch the monitor intently.

This had turned into a disaster.

They had been caught by the Doctor, their plan hadn't worked, at least... Not yet, if Glen and Mariah had their way.

He found the cam bulb overlooking a thin, rectangle chamber, strewn with console desks and radio towers lined against the far western wall- there were three men inside, scrambling through drawers at their stations to appropriate sidearms, and armor.

Glen smiled. They were woefully underprepared for the black colored, chitinous, ballistic missile heading their way.

 ** _CKS!ckckckc..._** -A ventilation cover flew off the wall somewhere nearby to the camera- clattered onto the ground, with a clearly rounded dent down its midsection from where Mariah had head-butted it off its bolted mooring.

The Xenomorph slipped into the room like a fluent shadow- one of the men was screaming, his buddy was tossed aside in two pieces, the bladed end of her tail slashing across his pelvis and separating him like a knife through paper.

She practically swam across the floor- the other man's pistol barked twice, each round missing, sparking away on the metal decking- she brought her claw up, her victim flying back with a precise incision of wetly-trailing crimson starting at his groin, and ending at the base of his throat.

The blood-trailing corpse hadn't even hit the ground before the last officer, who had turned tail and attempted to run- was frozen in place from the barbed business end of her tail running straight through his sternum.

Arms quivering on either side of himself, the Yutani guard was tossed off to the side, where his body folded over the top of one of the desks, slid off to the other side, and took the small portable computer on the desk's top with him to the floor back there.

Mariah was hunched in the center of the room, the Xenomorph's tail arcing through the air, patiently as her, behind her, waiting for more resistance that would not come.

Her eyeless, prehensile head turned towards the camera, and Glen smiled when she toothily expressed her knowledge of his observation.

" _How'd I do, guardian angel?_ "

"Sexy."

" _Suck up._ "

"Take the door."

The Xenomorph's tail lashed in the frame for a brief moment after she passed through the bulkhead, it sliding aside from her setting the motion sensors off.

Glen's ribs flared again, and baring his teeth, he turned around to observe around the misty, smoking, spark-filled lab.

He saw one of the dead scientists, with his arms poking out from the mounded debris from where the tank had cracked open and crushed the console stations directly below it, his white lab coat stained crimson in places.

Glen heard a metallic crunch, metal plates strewn on the floor shifting.

"-Thanks for the save, Mariah. You want to... help me find some clothes, eh-?" Glen laughed, turning around.

" ** _Quite the contrary, Mr. Hannson,_** " A crackling, static-laced voice echoed across the room from a mounted vox amplifier. " ** _-I plan on squashing you, like the insignificant rodent that you are._** "

Glen Hannson was faced with a fifteen foot tall, Type-M88 'CSME' Walker, out of date by Terran Navy standards for the last six years, but still, pretty damn powerful if you were the poor schmuck who had to fight against it and its operator in your birthday suit.

Glen swallowed, and stepped back from the console.

The Combat Superiority Multipurpose Exoskeleton's legs were bulky, ridden with spiraling bolt joints, piston supports elevated slightly off the blocky, drab-painted metals making its limbs, and there were industrial screws that connected the skeletal pylons layering over the delicate internals that allowed it to walk and move its arms.

It was vaguely humanoid in the sense of its torso, an upside-down blimp-like cockpit was surrounded by plates of drab metal, a translucent aluminum cockpit was hidden under several ribcages of curling steel, flanked by a pack of brightly lit spotlights on either side.

The suit shifted, whined, and thudded from where it had emerged on the outskirts of the highest ring level of the chamber, it was parodied to some even size to Glen's perception just because of the distance.

The right leg lifted, and lowered to the ring below the one the suit stood on, the quad-cloven, concrete looking pads rattling as they pressed into the flooring down there, and jolted the whole exoskeleton.

 ** _CLING-ringring_** -The Doctor, safely hidden within its cockpit, must have been smiling.

The other foot rose, and then came down to level with the first one.

 ** _CLING-ringring..._** -The wrist on the suit's right gauntlet whirred, shifted, and gave off metallic clacks of butting titanium- slowly, unfolding from a containment slot on the main forearm structuring, the tri-mouthed, linked length of a compressed 5'millimeter Hydra Displacer spiraled slowly as it was released from its prison of inactivity.

Glen swallowed again, when he realized one of the things that was ringing every time the suit took a step, was a golden, glistening ammunition belt that curled from a black, bolted pack over the exoskeleton's back from a slot in the structure's side.

The belt ran into a receiver square on the arm with the 5's elbow.

 ** _CLING-ringring_**

 ** _CLING-ringring..._**

 ** _CLING-ringring..._**

"- ** _My child, you look as if you are about to soil yourself._** " The Doctor chuckled, his voice crackling from the amplifiers in the suit's cockpit. " ** _I will admit, I did not expect you to actually break free of your prison._** "

"Surprise, asshole." Glen flexed his eyebrows, taking another step back from the console.

 ** _CLING-ringring..._**

-The suit was now on the ring level just over the one he was on, in the center of the large chamber, the lowest ground-floor.

" ** _You are a man of dedication, Mr. Hannson. Two years against our great Company? Admirable._** "

"It takes a long time to rub out big grime stains like you, and do it efficiently." Glen clenched his fists- his eyes darted towards a flicker of light from an outside passageway in the mists behind the Doctor's suit. "-Too bad I'm not exactly dressed for the occasion."

" ** _Impossible to not notice, or remove from my memory._** " The Doctor sneered- **_CLING-ringring..._** -he now towered a mere few feet away from Glen on the base level, he had to look up at the cockpit, hidden beneath the rib-like armor of the rounded torso. " ** _Simply solved, however. I brought an incinerator._** "

The 5's barrels started to rotate from where they extended from the suit's forearm, they gave off a tiny- **_whm-whm-whm-_** with each turn.

Glen stood his ground by this point, he glanced at the mighty weapon that had been designed specifically for ground vehicles to have some measure of defense against atmospherically operating space craft.

His skin, rife with sweat, red from the trauma of the pod tumbling, shifted in its glistening appearance as his chest bulged and then receded, he sighed.

" ** _You can kill my scientists, my soldiers, my children. But you cannot kill ME, or what I have made in the interest of science in this place._** "

"I've torn down people greater." Glen frowned up at the suit- he saw a shadow of movement, far up, through the mist and smog, towards the ceiling. "You're a pimple on the ass of the Milky Way, Tuli, Yutani won't even blink."

" ** _You're right, Mr. Hannson. They'll smile, and award me for the destruction of our greatest liability._** "

Doctor Tuli's suit whirred, shifted- the arm snapped up, and the 45' spun rapidly.

Glen's whole face twitched, his fists trembled.

-Then Mariah sailed from the ceiling above.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Glen's mother had always been the treehugger, a 'Hippie' his father used to joke about her.

She was the one that always wanted to show him these amazing, and beautiful places on whatever worlds, planetoids and moons that their work brought them to, she would take him on strolls through alien forests, gardens, down rocky or sandy- or a combination of the two -beaches.

She told him the same stories over and over, she lost herself in the plants, in some of the herbivorous life that grazed nearby, in the sky, and... and Glen watched her, and didn't understand any of it.

To him, he was like- 'It's a tree, what's the big deal?' -and everything his mother was doing was just a little... Weird, embarrassing, even.

Glen wished he could take that back, his old behavior, he wished he could take it back and change it, go back in time and switch around what he had been dealt, because every second of every thing and time of his old life ate away at him whenever he thought about it.

So that was why, whenever he thought about it, going back, changing everything- he reminded himself that if he did that, he would no longer have Mariah, and that got rid of all those considerations right off the bat.

" _Talk to me._ " She always started conversations like that.

Whenever there was nothing to say, nothing to be said, nothing to discuss, nothing to describe, or smile or frown at, and there was just silence and she didn't like it- the Xenomorph would smile with her reptilian chops, exposing an array of fangs that had terrified Glen upon first meeting her, and she'd chirp that to him, mentally.

" _C'mon, talk to me._ "

"About what?" Glen lazed his head over from where had been sprawled out on a deployable camping stool, precariously positioned just ahead of a snarling wrap of tread links over pneumatic suspension, holding aloft the flank of an abandoned industrial hauler.

The rectangular vehicle was sunk into the wet dirt of the world of Acktus Prime, its cab slots broken, the interior dark and unappealing, the whole thing overgrown with copious amounts of greenery, vines, ferns and bristles that stuck out and hugged all over the thing like mold.

-Glen and Mariah had camped out this night, long time in the past, maybe a year ago- in front of this beast, a vehicle that, specifically, was tied in with their efforts against the Company.

See, the hauler had a big, scorched, and ancient-looking gash in its rear plating, that belched into its interior and had blown out the whole vehicle with rolling fire. This, was where Glen had nailed it in the vulnerable rear armor with an RPG five months ago, when he and Mariah had traced Company researchers here.

Acktus Prime's ecosystem was hyperactive, and faster than the evolutions on, say, Earth- that was why, almost instantly, whenever something was left to the elements for a few days, it was all it took for vines and other plants to literally grow over it, like an obstacle in the road of inevitable takeover.

This hauler, and the wreck of the cargo ship that he and her had boarded, and subsequently crashed, into Acktus' surface, were all becoming one with nature here, again.

The shadow of the once great Yutani owned craft, was evident a few feet away, where it had lodged into the earth, made a crater, which all were soon hidden beneath a canopy of ferns and low trees.

" _Talk to me about anything,_ " Mariah reminded him of her wants at hand, she lay over the top links of the treads just ahead of the ones he sat before- she had her clawed legs arced over her back and buttocks, long head balanced in her clawed palms, her tail making a 'C' shape behind her. " _-I just want you to talk to me._ "

"...Remember the explosion this bitch made?" Glen grinned, waving an arm tiredly at the hauler behind him, that she lay on. "-Nailed it, right in the back."

" _No war talks, no Company talks._ "

"...Aight'."

" _I think the hyperactivity of this place is amazing, don't you?_ "

"What? The trees growing all the time?"

" _Yes, fascinating._ "

"Yes."

" _...Uninteresting to you, I see._ "

"-Nah, no," Glen sat more upright. "-Sorry, babe', I'm tired."

" _Yes, you're tired quite frequently._ "

"A day of shooting things."

" _How far is Earth, from here?_ " She looked over her wrist to a small tickle of flame left on a pile of wood they had set up ahead of themselves, the camping stool that she had found too small for herself, placed on the other side of it, shadowy, dancing in the amber hue of the fire back there, next to a pile of their gear.

"Aw, hell, I don't know, Mariah." Glen sighed. "-I haven't seen Earth in years."

" _But you've seen it?_ "

"From a distance, I've never walked on it, I've never BEEN down there."

" _You're own homeworld?_ "

"I've never had a homeworld. I was born in space, and in space I live, just with you." He smiled. "Now I wouldn't give that up for a million trips to Earth."

" _Hmmm..._ " She mused, humming. Mariah turned her head back to face him, balancing her chin in her palms again. " _I love you._ "

"Love you too."

" _If you could go to Earth, where would you go on it?_ "

"Europe," He nodded. "-People say that's where a lot of humanity's history is."

" _On one landmass? On one planet?_ "

"THAT'S fascinating."

" _Indeed it is...Where in Europe?_ "

"Anywhere specific? Not sure, I'd want to see all of it."

" _Rome? A city of religion?_ "

"What religion?"

" _Christianity? I'm not sure. Catholicism?_ "

"Both dead practices anyway... I never was a historian."

" _But does it sound interesting to you?_ "

"Yeah."

" _Yes?_ "

"Yeah I think it does."

" _...You THINK it sounds interesting to you?_ "

"...What else should I say?"

" _I didn't ask for anything specific, I..._ "

"-I hate it when you do that, asking me something, not liking my answer..." Glen huffed, picking up a stick near his boot and underhand tossing it into the withering fire.

The flames started to kick up a little more, and he slumped back in his plastic little chair, arms crossed over his gut, face unreadable. Mariah had quietly taken to sitting over the edge of the treads on the hauler, her tail was over her lap, and her head was angled for him.

A moment of silence passed, and the Xenomorph looked like she was about to cry, her legs kicking slowly.

"...I'm so sorry," Glen lowered his head. "-A-And I hate it when I say stupid shit."

" _...Apology accepted..._ " She mumbled, arms folding underneath her breasts.

"...You shouldn't accept it," He said, face highlighted amber, he leant forwards and sat with his elbows and arms hung over his knees, watching the flames. "I'm an angry person, Mariah, and that's not your fault, and I have no right to take it out on you."

" _You're not an angry person, Glen,_ " She stated, her tail sliding between her fingers and thumb as she stroked it through her caressing palm. " _-But sometimes you do need to control your temper._ "

He opened his mouth, sucked it up, shut it, and took it appropriately, nodding his head.

Nighttime on Acktus Prime, filled with chirping crickets, rustling of millions of forest leaves, filled with a growing sense of owing Mariah something, and that it was something that Glen wasn't ready to give up.

He looked away from the fire, back at her, sitting over the tread links of the hauler- her head was still angled, facing him, she fiddled with her claws in her lap.

"Come here." Glen broke the ice, smirked.

" _After that show? You're not getting anything._ " She reclined her head, grinning.

"Yeah I am."

" _Nope._ "

"Come here," Glen stood up, the stool fell over behind him, and he spread his arms out, angling his head down and grinning toothily at her. "-Don't leave me open."

" _Get away from me._ " She said dismissively. " _I'm covered in blades, do keep in mind._ "

"I'll brave those chances. Come here."

" _Glen-_ " She warned.

"-Mariah," He mocked in turn. "-Here I come."

" _One finger on the merchandise, and I'll hack it off._ " She cocked her head when he stood right before her.

"Which? My finger?"

" _Whichever pops up first._ "

Glen gradually developed a frown, his arms lowered, and he shifted on his feet, looking at her in a disappointed way.

"Seriously?"

" _Completely._ "

"But my girls, right there," He nodded at her chest. "-They're calling me."

" _First off, they're MY -'Girls'- not yours, and no, no they are not._ " She laughed, raising her arms to cover herself.

"Yours, mine, what's the difference?"

" _Glen, go away. You were rude to me, that doesn't equal sex._ "

"You bluffer," Glen's belt flew off in an instant- he tossed it away where it metallically rang off into the darkness by the fire, and his jump pants slid right down his ankles, pooled over his feet. "-If you're going to hack it off, then there it is."

" _You're brave, I'll give you that._ "

"Brave," He curled his finger over the side of it, pulled it until it touched his thigh, and then he let it snap back to its prior protrusion. "-And loaded."

" _-Glen-!_ " She laughed. " _-Is this how you're going to woo me?_ "

"It could be a hypnotizing locket, back and forth," Glen repeated the same motion from before. "-Back and forth."

" _-Ha! Haha! Mmmmm... I MIGHT be able to spare some of my time... Even if you were so rude to me._ "

"-I'll show you rude."

" _I believe you._ "

-She came down from the treads, and, there wasn't even a moment of reprisal or pause before Glen found himself immersed in a flurry of wrapping arms, increased weight as the Xenomorph clenched her legs over his waist.

The night of crickets, negative emotional heat, was replaced with him laying her atop the tread links of the hauler and doing the deed right then and there, her legs jerking in their supports over his shoulders, her tail whipping between his ankles, head craned back, jaws parted for tiny sinews of saliva to course and drip from her fangs.

Mariah always lost herself whenever they joined for these kinds of things- it was her way of escape, of spending just that extra amount of passion and time with him, that she felt did not happen enough, and that Glen knew she was right of in thinking.

Her arms curled over her head, she gripped a vine hanging off the hauler's flank for leverage, the other claw gripping the top cranial mass of her long head as she bent back forwards to look up at him.

Glen gripped her hips, he purposefully broke eye contact with her face after awhile of sustained patterns- he watched the genital connection, and he did that because it allowed him to conclude his natural process of insemination faster.

The man transitioned quickly from a moment of rife matters of the flesh, to a quiet night once more, seated on one of the camping stools, with Mariah parking herself over his lap, hanging her arms over his shoulders with her head wedged beside his.

It hadn't lasted very long, and it wasn't really an effort that had neither of their full energy, it was merely a release, they did that for physical relief, not bonding.

Still, Mariah held onto him, encased as much of him as possible under her arms, her legs, her hips and her tail, and she muttered things to him, and he to her, things meant to get them both back in the ring for a second round, that wound up never happening anyway.

Glen saw this, that night on Acktus Prime, as the sort of marker for when their relationship started entering a hilly place, and it would be a transition that darkened his mood, and hers, for the next year.

Feeling the warmth of her black hide, the coursing of her thin, dexterous limbs having their way like serpents across his body, feeling her heated breath on his face, on his neck and chest... Glen hadn't felt that in a long time.

He missed that.

That love, that warmth, that feeling of certainty in her care for him...

...It was replaced with cold steel, and legions of armed soldiers hoping for their demise.

Fast forward that year, a year of death, of traveling through the Milky Way, of seeing the worst that humanity had to offer... Of battling Weyland Yutani.

Here they were, on Epsilon-Candis, some rock in the middle of nowhere, traversing the underworld of a fortress of madmen, and evil.

"We're underneath a transition engineering cell," Glen's armored form was highlighted with slivers of light from above, coursing through the slots of a vent cover making the tiny tunnel's ceiling that they hunched through. "-You want the honors?"

" _Gladly._ " Mariah's tail bunched up behind her- she rear back the flat of the blade, and shot her appendage upwards in a vicious slash.

 ** _BNKK! clmclmclcmclm..._** -The man-sized vent was slapped right off its bolted moorings, flew a foot in the air overhead, and vanished in a falling arc to the north, where it rattled against concrete flooring.

Glen stood to his full height, primed his shotgun, and swept around the foot-level of the chamber above within five seconds.

Another rectangular expanse, lined with thick pipes that connected the stain-riddled concrete floor and ceiling on both sides, in rows of twenty, extending up and down the chamber. A thin light fixture capped the center ceiling of the chamber, its bulbs burnt out, and the whole thing dark, like everything else.

"Clear. Let's go." Glen gripped the edge of the new square hole in the floor, and hoisted himself up with scrabbling boots- Mariah just leapt out of the tunnel below, and trudged away from him as he stood to his full height on the edge of the hole.

" _Bulkheads. Which one should we take? North or south?_ "

Glen looked at both ends of the chamber, nodded north.

The two slunk through the low-leveled mist of the cell, their tiny steps against the concrete not hearable, but thoroughly covered anyway by the hissing of the great, steel pipes on either side of them.

The bulkheads in the lower levels of the facility were all cream colored, with patches of metal-eating rust forming brown scabs across their yellow-stained girths. They had manual crank wheels in their centers for auxiliary in case the touch panels on their frames stopped working.

Glen already had that covered.

He took out one of the I.D. cards he had swiped off the guys they'd killed in the Buggy the other day- a thin little strip of translucent plastic with a neon blue code printed across its surface. He held the code flat up to a yellow scanner pad on the panel's face, which blinked red, and then green, and the bulkhead made an echoing thud of its bolt unlocking.

Together, man and Xenomorph pressed their palms into the door, and they slowly slid it ajar, the entryway creaking lowly on its rusty hinges. Mariah slipped in the chamber beyond first, and Glen followed up with his combat shotgun presented.

" _This is different..._ " She noted, raising her head to take in all the detail of the large, square chamber they had entered.

Glen saw ahead, that there was a large porthole that saw out into an expansive hangar-like structure beyond, illuminated faintly from this deep inside the chamber, with work lights from the ceiling outside.

He checked left and right- saw two more doors, one on each end, that lead deeper into the facility's mid-levels.

"Stay low." He muttered.

" _As if I had a choice._ "

"Look."

Glen and Mariah quietly traversed a few feet of steel plated floor, they reached and crouched down by the bottom rim of the great porthole in the chamber's opposite side. Staring over the rounded steel, they saw into a gigantic storage area of mind boggling proportions.

It was large enough to contain TWO freighter sized ships, there were observation boxes lining the top of the three huge, and towering walls that sealed the hangar up to a domed ceiling, with a six-windowed box hanging from its zenith by cables, and a support pylon with a glass tube for a lift running down its flank.

Scaffolding connected the far western and eastern sides of the chamber, with tens of walkways appearing as mere black lines that ran close above to the ceiling, on either side of the support pylon of the central office did they flank.

Down below, on the very ground floor of the hangar, there were rows, and rows, and rows, and ROWS... of these- 'Bionic Zombies'.

Thousands of them.

Standing still, not moving any muscles, for ones that still had faces- expressionless.

They were black roads of tiny dominoes from up here, and they went all the way from one end of the hangar, to the other, lined horizontally, arm to arm, with tiny ant-like men and women in lab coats strolling between the lanes of the rows with tablets, and work lights.

Mariah gazed at all of this for a bit longer, and then swept her gaze to Glen, who was still glued to it all.

"...This is much bigger than we thought."

" _I agree with your want of tank now, if that helps._ "

"We can't do this without some heavy weapons." Glen dug around for his portable laptop- unfolded it by his boot, and clicked away at some of the keys, Mariah watching him for a second, and then reaffirming her gaze down below over the side of the porthole rim. "Follow me, I found them."

" _Armory?_ "

"Oh yes."

" _Glen,_ "

"What?"

" _Look at that man, down there._ "

Glen slapped his laptop shut, and looked back down into the floor below.

He reached up and turned the zoom function dial on the temple of his combat helmet until the visor focused closer to the man in question, surrounded by five or six other scientists in coats, this man had a yellow coat, over a vest of what looked like black leather.

He had a broad chin, rounded, and one eye that lacked a pupil, the other was a lens protruding from a cranium plate wrapped over the whole right side of his head. He was balled, and circuit diodes were gridded over his cleanly shaved head.

He had big arms hidden under the coat, big legs, thin hips, both of his feet were clearly bionic, cased in metal coverings that were stylized to look like the boots of some medieval suit of armor.

Glen now examined the reflective, black texturing of the vest he wore, and saw it was rounded down the sternum, down over the chest, and to his belt buckle of a silvery icon, with the stylized 'WY' of the Company.

He didn't have to know much about this man to understand that he was whacked out of his mind.

That, had to be the foreman of this place. Something in Glen's gut just screamed it.

" _Leader?_ " Mariah brought him back from his observations.

"Has to be."

" _We should get to that armory soon, and start blowing things up before anyone can realize what's happening._ "

"Agreed."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	4. Chapter 4

**_So three days ago, I had the saddest day of my life, I cannot remember a time where me and my family, especially me, have cried so much. I don't know if you know, because I can't remember if I've ever mentioned it before, I had a cat, and she was a beautiful, beautiful cat, a tabby with every color in the tabby spectrum- she was brown, orange, silver, gray, black, white, tan, absolutely a beautiful cat with the sweetest soul, her name was Kibbles._**

 ** _Now I think I've said this before, I'm 20, I'm a young guy, I have my whole life ahead of me- I've had this cat for 13 years, of my life, MOST, of my life I have had this wonderful friend of mine by my side, rubbing on my legs, she'd talk with me, we could meow at each other back and forth, she was the only cat in the world who liked having her belly rubbed, and her butt scratched- she was awesome, she was my Kibbles, I called her the Marshmellow with Legs._**

 ** _We had to put her to sleep because she was so sick, she couldn't even eat, or drink, or walk up stairs anymore, I spent the last few weeks after Christmas watching my cat get sicker and sicker, hoping the medications we gave her, and the foods we gave her, would make her better, and alas, they did not, and my baby, my best friend, passed away in our home, and I'm heartbroken._**

 ** _It's amazing how much I have experienced such a feeling of mortality, and emptiness in my house, I miss her so much and I still cry over it and probably will for the rest of my life, that's how special this kitty was to me._**

 ** _So, as you can imagine, this has made writing very difficult for me, it's hard to concentrate when I'm thinking about her and how much I wish she was back, I had a few people submit feedback to me recently, and I just haven't had the energy to respond to it, so if you sent me feedback, or a PM and I haven't really responded to you, please don't think I'm ignoring you, or purposefully trying to avoid you, it's just hard for me to communicate with folks lately, I'm really not in a good mood._**

 ** _So anyway, I finally updated my comedy Skyrim story, I dunno' if you would want to give it a shot, I've had some folks tell me it was funny, and now I've finally updated this story too, and I added a cover, I hope you think both, the update and cover, are kewl, and if not, well, then I implore you to eat my used sock and pop off. Lol_**

 ** _I post all updates on Twitter, I've gotten some really fantastic people to follow me on there and I'd love to have you onboard, thanks for reading, fav' and follow' if you want, have an awesome-sauce day, and love your family, life is too short._**

 ** _~Don_**

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Navigating the facility wasn't the hard part. That was certain, because Glen and her had spent days mapping the place out, taking their time, planning entrances and exits, observing patrol paths- and even though they had never physically walked its halls, they knew where a lot of stuff was.

There was actually a whole bunch of things that were constraining their time here- armed patrols of guards who had been informed of their specific possible breaching into the facility- groups of on-site staff who were oblivious with noses in dataslates or notebooks, and security modules and nodes, all played a part.

Glen and Mariah couldn't exactly start killing their way into the depths of the facility- and they couldn't leave bodies, because Glen had no doubt that there were security lockdown procedures, and mechanisms, to prevent anything from leaving or entering the base that could be turned on at a moment's notice.

He knew the Company had no qualms about locking their staff in with monsters when it came to covering up evidence or stopping a possible intergalactic threat to them, like him and her. Plus, they may have been good at fighting, but even they couldn't stop an entire private army up front like that, they would be overwhelmed.

Slinking past the guards and the scientists wasn't the hard part about what they were doing, especially since Mariah could just take vents, pipes, and travel along the ceiling to avoid all prying eyes to begin with- they didn't need radios on account of their psychic communicative bond.

" _There's an entire patrol coming down the pass from the right._ " Mariah reported to him from above- Glen, when he was actively looking for her, could see her, a story high above, nestled underneath a few elongated light fixtures hanging via wire from the plated ceiling.

"Got it."

Glen peered out from behind a stack of drab-colored, calibrated securi-lock containers that were bunched in a big square on the top of a aluminum lifter pallet.

Sure enough, from down a lane lined on both sides by more container and drum stacks- a group of five men, and a woman, all clad in outdated ceramic body armor and vests, trotted in a mob across the steel floor of the chamber, holding Pulse Rifles.

Glen slowly folded down behind his cover- he slunk across the width of the pallet in tune with their passing to the flank- years of doing the exact same thing across a hundred planets in a hundred different facilities had rendered him quite good at stealth.

He was on the other side of the stack, he peeked back the way he came, saw the collection of six heads, all wearing bandannas- vanish down another lane among the maze of storage equipment in this section of the base.

Glen looked up at where Mariah was, squinting against the haze of the bright light fixtures layering the ceiling up there- he saw a flicker of shadow slither like a snake across the plates, move halfway to the end of the massive cell, faster than he could by a long shot.

" _Two men by the northern bulkhead, they're not moving, Glen._ "

"Armed?"

" _Assault Rifles._ "

"Which way are they facing?"

" _The WRONG way... I'm not sure you can get around them._ "

"Can you lure them?"

" _I'll try._ "

Glen glanced both ways, angling out into the open from the stack of crates- he hunched over and darted over the lane to cross between two horizontally laid and tied plats of rounded, ribbed drums, all marked with 'WY' logos on their top caps and bottoms.

He slipped between a few more plats and piles- came before another expanse of clear space, and right ahead, seated on a stray crate, was one of the guards in full combat attire, with a rifle lazily draped over his lap.

The guy was cracking himself up with some joke he had told to another fellow standing next to him, who was frowning- didn't look too amused, more orderly, he had his gun in both hands, lowered over his belly.

Glen clacked his teeth quietly in his mouth as he thought.

" _I don't think bullrushing them will solve the problem._ " Mariah mused, reading his internal considerations.

"Nah." Glen slid his combat shotgun over the harness on his back, he reached by his hip, slid out his serrated combat blade from its sheathe, and flexed his flingers over the ribbed handle. "Make a noise."

" _Here it goes._ "

- ** _SSSsssssSSSssssssssssss..._**

-A terrible rattle of a million pine needles, Mariah hissed loud enough that the sound bounced the whole story down to catch the attention of both the meathead guards.

The soldiers jolted to look up at the darkness above, the guy on the crate had his brows furrowed, mouth caught mid-laugh in a 'o' shape- and the man standing beside him was raising his rifle, eyes narrowed.

Glen crossed over the distance, slipping behind a larger crate nearby.

"I've never heard THAT noise from you before." He commented in a smile.

Mariah telepathically giggled.

"Hit the standing one, now."

Glen swept around the crate's side- he raised his arms, and, simultaneously, only in a trained way that they, and they alone, could manage- Glen's blade swam across and parted the cream protrusion of the sitting man's neck, the flesh yawning, like a mouth, and then slowly disgorging a fall of crimson.

He tugged the body down with him, behind the crate the Company thug had been sitting on- the man's face frozen, mouth ajar, eyes wide in this sick finality of realization- his arms went limp and the gun fell back with him.

Mariah stood from where she had sailed down from above- she unraveled the clawed toes of her one foot from where they wrapped across the other soldier's temple, his neck making a terrible sound from how far she had wrenched it over and past his shoulder.

Tail arcing behind her, she gripped the scruff of her victim's vest, and hauled the corpse off the floor without so much as a grunt.

Glen finished stuffing his kill behind a larger crate, she tossed her part of the pile on top of his, and then they appropriated the fallen guns and dropped them back there too.

" _Someone's bound to find them._ " She commented, moving for the bulkhead their recent tally marks had been watching- the door slid in two when it detected her.

"Yep. We need to keep moving, and we need to do it faster." Glen slipped into the frame after her. "This is the quartermaster lobby."

" _Lobby? Don't we need an armory?_ "

"Quartermaster will have the exact location and specifications of its contents, I want to know what we're looking at before we just up and steal something."

" _Who's that? His secretary?_ " Mariah joked.

-Sitting, wide-eyed, behind a curved desk of white metal, was a gruff looking man with red hair, and a red mustache and beard making a scribble all over his unkempt face.

There was a big 'WY' Company symbol emblazoned on the wall right behind the desk and the black swivel chair the worker at it sat in. Glen and the Xenomorph hadn't anticipated someone being, you know... Immediately after the door, but, here they were.

Glen blinked, raised a brow when the man behind the desk ahead clambered about his chair, where it slid away from him on squeaking wheels- he reached into a drawer, grabbed up the silvery flash of a magnum, before Glen put a round between his eyes with his Braxis Colt.

 ** _CLK!_** -His arm rose, jolted, the pistol discharged once, and the worker tumbled back with a quick misting of red popping from a darkened hole in his forehead- the magnum flipped through the air and bounced onto the top of the desk, the body now not visible behind.

"DEAD secretary, yeah." Glen corrected her with a chuckle.

" _Two ways._ " Mariah looked left and right- indeed, two ways, two hallways that curled around the wall on either side with the logo on it, leading to the same location zenith behind it.

"Take left, I go right."

" _How come YOU get to go right?_ "

"Funny."

Glen crept in his indicated direction, and Mariah almost swam across the floor of the room to pass by the corner of her own way- silently, perfectly, like she had been created to do.

Glen's eyes didn't even trail to the body of the workman behind the desk, his blood forming a quick spatter on the wall behind where he had been shot- Glen switched out his Braxis for his shotgun again, kept it leveled.

The halls beyond were darker, they merged almost immediately, and Glen found himself observing his Xenomorph creeping around the bend opposite his as he peaked around the corner.

" _Coast is clear? All three feet of it?_ " She joked, slipping into the open floor to stand before him as he trekked to the center of the intersection.

"Can't be too careful." Glen grinned, looking to the side at a closed bulkhead, that obviously lead to the quartermaster chambers. "Be ready in case someone heard the shot."

" _I always am._ "

"Slip in when I tell you to."

" _I'm ready._ "

"Go."

Glen stepped up to the bulkhead, and simultaneously, as it slipped aside into the frame- he stood beyond the arch and swept his weapon left and right, Mariah was a bulge of darkness that slithered up to the ceiling of the chamber beyond, her tail lashing, all the way up the wall above the frame.

The two of them stood in an expansive rectangular cell- lined, front to back in rows, with wire-laden, button gridded, switch filled blocks of computer processors. Each tower was a head taller than Glen, and they were lined horizontally, face to face, they had cooling vents towards their bottom halves that hissed and grumbled in the quietness of the chamber.

Glen kept his gun raised, angled his helmet back and forth to try and glance into some of the aisles from where he stood- there were eight passes between ten rows of these data blocks, and it was perfect for a group of people to be hiding in.

"Do you see anything?" He muttered.

" _No, there's no one here..._ " Mariah assured from above- he glanced up and saw her travel across the tiles of the ceiling, worming around the hanging wires supporting light fixtures dimly illuminating the room.

"Any security bulbs?"

" _We're in a YUTANI facility, remember?_ "

"Come down here."

Glen still kept his weapon in a one-handed grasp by his hip as he strolled into one of the aisles- glancing at both rows of computers on either side of himself. They were high-tech models, expensive stuff. Silver exterior plastics and metals over circuit boards of black and bronze, buttons and sigils glowing red, blue and green all over them- clumps and bushels of multicolored wires belching from opened ports and trailing to new ones.

Millions and millions upon MILLIONS, of bytes of data were stored in these computers, and Glen knew, that this was just one of several logistics tracking stations, that all acted together in a network of nodes designed to keep records and order among the billions of credits spent supplying such massive operations.

Tiny little black orbs that were centered with a cartoon-y' depiction of a gas giant planetoid, with a ring of blue haloing around its midsection, were evident as icons of the manufacturer on the computer tower's silver hides.

Glen knew that firm- Persius Technologies, based in the colonies of Saturn's rings back in the Sol System, neighboring Earth herself.

How deep into humanity's heart as a species, had the blackened fingers of the Company clawed and gripped?

" _Persius Technologies?_ " Mariah parroted his internal recognitions of the symbol, stalking up by his flank as he stopped by one of the towers- the Xenomorph hybrid angled her head at him. " _Is this yet another group of people we are against?_ "

"Persius Tech' has Navy ties." Glen grimly stated. "Every time we dig up more and more knowledge on Yutani, the closer we come to seeing the Navy involved in this."

" _Do you think the Company has integrated in some way with the Navy?_ "

"If they have, nobody's safe."

" _What do you believe?_ "

"I want to believe the Navy sees something wrong."

" _But what do the facts point to, for you? Forget what we WANT for a moment, honestly._ " Mariah turned to him, her tail curling by his leg.

"...Nobody's been safe in this galaxy anyway." Glen cuffed a glove into her shoulder, the synthetics of her armor clacking. "Find a terminal, I need it to access all this data."

" _I saw consoles on the other side of the room._ "

"There we go."

Glen and her silently trekked down the one aisle-even though they were confidant they were alone, they still took it quietly, with heightened attention to any sounds or sense of commotion in the expansive chamber.

They were in the middle of a bee's hive- if they caused even a small disturbance, all hell would break loose- they were already chancing a lot with the two men they had killed beforehand, as hiding the bodies was only a temporary stave.

" _There they are, see?_ " Mariah nodded her long head- breaking out from the aisle, they were exposed to a slightly raised podium of the tiled floor at the end of the chamber, it was centered, against the wall, with a cluster of large-screened consoles with arm-supported keyboards jutting from their chins.

Glen jogged up the bevel in the flooring- he tapped into the center console, pulled out his laptop and laid it on the keyboard, opened it up and started clicking away.

" _What are you trying?_ " Mariah slowly reached behind him, peered over his shoulder.

"I can't access these without a password, dear." Glen smirked.

" _Do these systems have alarms, if the code isn't inputted correctly? Like the ones on Thraka?_ "

"I'm working under the assumption they do."

" _-Why were you thinking about Acktus Prime, earlier?_ "

"...Ahm..." Glen stopped typing, glanced at her, and then shrugged and kept doing what he had been doing. "-Fun night."

" _Oh yes._ " She sighed. " _...Do you think you were less prone to getting angry before me?_ "

"What kind of a question is that?" Glen quirked his brow as his laptop bleeped, and he forcibly bypassed the password locks on the console he had connected with.

" _When we were first traveling, you would never snap at me, I always snapped at YOU._ "

"What's your point?" He stowed the computer by his hip, tapped a few keys on the console board, and sneered when the screen bloomed drab green with a rotating, 3-D picture of a Weyland Yutani 'WY' logo in the center.

 _"Why do you think we switched places, Glen?_ " The Xenomorph watched him type in a few queries on the engine bar, emotionlessly, eyeless head stilled, arms draped in front of her with her natural, and slight hunch in her stance.

"...Beats me."

" _Because as I've gotten happier having someone, you've become more fed up with the longer your personal crusade is taking you?_ "

Glen hit another key, and blew a gust from his nose, tightening his lips over his teeth. He glanced over his shoulder at her, and saw her looking at him blankly.

"...It's an opinion. Doesn't make it fact. I thought we didn't dive into memories we locked from the other, Mariah."

" _Sometimes, Glen, you make it awfully hard NOT to._ " She cocked her head. " _-Why are we locking ANYTHING from each other, to begin with?_ "

"That's how people work."

" _They hide things from each other? Even when they're bonded like us?_ "

"You're a person, you should know."

" _Is that what I am to you? Just a PERSON, Glen?_ "

"You're putting words in my mouth, Mariah."

" _Allow me to present you with an education, DEAR,_ " Mariah snapped. " _-I, am the person you pledged your life to! I am the person, who pledged her own life, to YOU. You said that you loved me, and Glen, I believe you, and I love you more than anyone in space!_ "

"What are you SAYING?" Glen growled. "-Forget that I'm trying to keep us from getting capped by security synthetics for a moment, let's examine this, shall we? This, EDUCATION, Mariah..."

" _Maybe if we weren't fighting all the time, killing people, traveling immediately after whenever we finally struck down the last soldier, or robot, or Xenomorph- MAYBE, we could actually have what we got together to have in the first place!_ "

"Which is?"

" _Someone who cares?!_ "

"I DO care! Why do you always think I DON'T care about you?!" Glen roared, tearing away from the keyboard, and jabbing a finger at her. "-I have no one else in my life besides you! Your argument doesn't make sense!"

" _If you loved me so much, you would stop treating me, like I'm just another soldier!_ " She barked. " _That's all I am some days! A SIDEKICK, your 'Partner'- in a war! A squadmate! I don't WANT that!_ "

"-I'm done." Glen waved a hand, turned back to the keyboard. "Locking this down. I have a job to do."

" _Yes yes... You ALWAYS have a job to do, Glen, and they're always more important than the only person in the galaxy who cares about you._ "

"...Stop." He grunted.

" _No._ " Mariah snarled, folding her arms, her tail lashing. " _No I will not stop._ "

"..."

" _...All you do is run away from anything that isn't solved with guns..._ "

"..."

" _...I miss the OLD Glen... The one whose temper was under control, who didn't get angry with me and argue with me all the time..._ "

"..."

" _...The one who saved me back at that lab._ "

"...I thought I had saved a weapon," Glen grumbled, typing in another key, he watched the loading bar. "Something to help me kill Company goons. I realized that I saved my life partner."

" _...I never asked you to fall for me..._ "

"But I did, Mariah, I did." Glen shut off the console, turned to her again. "I did fall for you. Here we are, now, today. I didn't ask you to fall for me either."

" _...So what are you saying?_ " She trembled with anger.

"Our lives have been spent being forced into things we never wanted."

" _...Glen..._ "

"Why the hell are we treating the only good thing that ever happened to us like this, Mariah?"

" _..._ "

Glen stomped down the podium, and she followed by his side.

"Storage hangar's got the three M-88's in it. Let's get them."

" _...Are we taking a different way?_ "

"Yes."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Death defying situations weren't anything new. They'd seen it all, experienced it all, they'd been shot at, they'd had missiles loosed off at them, curses screamed in their direction, it had all happened and they both were used to it.

With the kind of work that Glen and Mariah did, risking their lives was just part of the requirement quota for traversing the stars, and literally looking for trouble. Wherever people persisted, there would always be crime, and immorality, bad things, sick things... It was part of human nature, no getting around that.

But Glen had set out to do something that throughout the ages of humankind, had been proven to not work, and to actually exacerbate what it was being enacted to solved. Glen had become so angry at what had been done to him, his cards dealt to him to determine how his life had played out, all the things that had been taken from him and kept that way.

He had become so angry at the billowing flames that were consuming portions of his very existence in time and space, that he had opted to fight fire with fire- violence for violence, crime for crime, and in his eyes- there was no redemption for a person once they started doing bad things, no change, to him people never changed deep inside.

People never changed, he believed it with every ounce of his being. No matter how many people across the stars had claimed their lives had shifted, no matter how many people said they were not the same person they were at whatever point in the past. No matter how many people said they had put their old selves aside.

To Glen, everything somebody did was driven by the same goals and wants and desires that they had been born with, that they had emerged into the world as adults and cognitive thinkers with. The only thing that changed, was how people viewed what they were doing, and how they categorized it.

While that was fine for 'Good' people, 'Bad' people was where it was not tolerable. To Glen, people who committed crimes, people who were selfish and allowed that selfishness to harm others, people who disregarded the lives of others around them, or worse, TOOK the lives of those around them... They were a cancer, a disease, and the only way to remove such a thing was to destroy it.

Glen had forged his very life around this very thing- he harbored hatred, anger, resentment, and he used it as a weapon against every single villain he came across, and so far, his brutality had allowed even the scourge of the galaxy to fear him.

Glen was utterly ruthless, and to other people, he was precariously balancing on the top of the fence from what he had pledged himself as, and what he had pledged to destroy. The lines between good and evil had been blurred with him every since he had killed his first man, ever since he had begun to ball and wad all the anger in his soul.

There wasn't a day that passed where Glen Hannson did not frown at something- he frowned at walls, ceilings, furniture, ships, guns, the floor... Sometimes nothing at all, or sometimes other people...

-And sometimes he frowned at Mariah.

What had this hatred, this thing that he had used to do what impassioned him, to grant him overwhelming strength to barrel through the tunnel of shadows and obstacles and terrors- what had it done to the side of him that supposed to be separate from all that?

It had blurred the line. Hatred always, ALWAYS, blurred the lines between everything.

Hatred was the essential ingredient to the toxins of war, and strife, and conflict between sentient beings that had plagued intelligent society across time and space ever since the miracle of life had been formulated in the atoms of the primordial ages.

Hatred was what drove people to commit heinous acts, to do terrible things, to make them qualify for Glen's blacklist.

Glen had modeled so much of himself off of killing, and death, he thought about it every day, because it was such a big part of him, and his daily activities. Death, and carnage, and turning everything- the number of lives, the number of bullets and planets and stars and ships and near-death experiences -turning them all into numbers, and nothing else except numbers, had poisoned him.

To him everything was a God damned number- how many people do I have to kill, how many have I saved, how many CAN I save, how many planets will I cleanse with expended ammunition and fire, how many Company assets haven't I destroyed.

Where was his life after all of that? Where was living? Where was being happy? Where was Mariah? ...Where the hell was HE?

What had he become?

What divided him from the monsters that had killed his parents? All of his friends and neighbors? How had he not seen the hatred, the HATE, all of that horrible, horrible hate... How had he not seen it blurring that line like he had so many other lines?

The line was blurring, melting, becoming two things in one, and it was destroying him.

Glen Hannson... Vigilante, bane of the Xux Stars, Liberator of the Gars Colony, Executor of Cartels, the Inquisitor, the Assassin, the Mad Shotgunner, the Thug Killer... He had spent his young life attaining all those titles, and they all involved killing.

...How was he... HIM... How was he a 'Good Guy'? How did that make him 'Good', when all he did was destroy, like the 'Bad' of the galaxy? They destroyed, and so did he, what was the difference? The blur of the line?

Some fought for justice... Glen was fighting for revenge that was already taken, and it had spiraled out of control.

" _Talk to me._ " -Even if he was frowning, he always smiled when she said that to him, asked him of it.

"'Bout what, babe'?" He'd laugh, and then she'd laugh, he loved her laugh, even if he could only hear it through their psychic connection... She didn't laugh a lot anymore.

Of course, if you wanted to remove all the other pieces from the chess board for a moment, and consider what you were looking at in the moment, in this one square- it was awfully hard to laugh when you were tangling with an exo suit being piloted by some crazed doctor of the Company.

" ** _-I told the board you should've been burned at that lab two years ago! But, NAY, they wouldn't hear a word of it!_** "

Mariah landed right over the ribbed armor protecting the mech's canopy, holding the angry, screaming Doctor Tuli as his broad arms lashed and swung about- the human-like fingers on the left limb gripping the air for the Xenomorph.

Her onyx black body was a shadow that crawled and circled loops all over the larger exo suit- she crawled under his arms, between his steel legs, over his piston-laden back, and her bladed tail arced and jabbed downwards repeatedly- dabbing in and out of areas she deemed vulnerable.

The blade was capable of piercing reinforced titanium- and so the joints of Tuli's suit, rivets between plates, or the interior of the cockpit canopy, were all fair and easy game for the wrenching natural weapon.

Sparks and flame belched from whatever gashes she tore into the suit's hide- pieces of tortured metal or individual parts were ripped off raggedly in her clenching claws, or impaled on the length of her retracting trail, and they sailed away with each new strike she made.

Tuli lumbered about, the boots of the suit rumbling the entire laboratory, leaving fissures and indents in the tiled and steel flooring about the zenith ground level.

Glen took that moment to slip away- he leapt up onto the second raised level ringing around the center of the chamber, and he made for some of the capillary chambers running along in exterior cells of the lab- like the security office Mariah had butchered her way through to reach him.

Glen's gear was in a locked security container in one of those storage cells, and he could break the lock, that wasn't an issue- the issue was, if he could do all that, find it, reach it, get it open, put at least SOME of his shit on to fight- if he could do that before Tuli got the upper hand.

"Mariah!" Glen called out- vanishing underneath a bulkhead frame on the very edges of the lab. "-Don't keep fighting him! I'm out of the way! Run! Hide!"

Mariah detached from the engagement as quick as she had entered it.

Tuli had stumbled backwards, the suit whining, roaring, thudding and clanking- a great plume of fire, sparks and dust flew about as his armored heel backed into one of the consoles that ringed the center of the chamber- dislodged it from its bolting to the floor, and sent the ragged scrap careening backwards in a flaming heap.

Mariah lithely rammed her tail through another joint by his rounded shoulder pauldron- saw flickering electricity follow her retracting blade- crawled across his the cockpit canopy, and leapt several feet into the shadows above, vanishing into the darkness of the ceiling sections.

Tuli had almost grabbed her- the tip of her tail had literally snaked between his robotic claw's clenching fingers as he snapped his arm up to apprehend her- his metal finger tips giving off a- **_clk!_** -as they bit empty air in her stead.

" ** _Vile creature!_** " Tuli's voice boomed from within the cockpit. " ** _You both fight for a cause that you cannot even muster bravery for! You hide! Like rats beneath the decks of sailships of olde'!_** "

"Keep on ranting, you son of a bitch..." Glen tore into the storage cell he sought- a thin, rectangle room, bare of machines or consoles or anything- just walls, and rows of drab green lockers with big fat, old padlocks keeping their contents under wraps.

Being naked, Glen's gut was turning circles inside him as he ran across the cell- fearing a soldier, or a synthetic being somewhere within to attack him, or shoot at him with his dick literally hanging in the breeze.

His skin glistened with sweat enough, that every time he checked one of the lockers, found it the wrong one, and sprinted over to another- his body was highlighted a fluorescent gray/blue from faint worklight fixtures in the ceiling above.

Outside, there was thudding, the sound of Tuli still cursing them. Glen just prayed the guy would keep up his little speech.

He ran over to another locker, checked the tiny number inscribed on the tag and laughed loudly with a feeling of success. He gripped the padlock with his right hand, and the bionics in his digits whined and complained noisily as he clenched his synthetic fingers tightly.

"Come-ON..." Glen grit his teeth, his wrist spasming.

 ** _CRK-! clngclngclng..._** -The lock snapped in two at the metal loop, and the pieces rung away on the concrete floor below.

"-Mariah, I found my gear, where are you?" **_CRrk-eeekk..._** He tore the locked open and examined the folded armored vest, the jumpsuit, the pauldron wraps and greaves and gauntlets- all of his suit was there, even his Braxis Colt was there too, laid across the breast of the armored vest on the locker's floor.

"-STOP! Hey-! Fucking shoot him!"

Glen sucked in his breath- he grabbed up his Braxis and the discharged clip next to it- fast enough that as he tore away from the locker, his vest came out with him and smacked onto the floor. He scrambled to the side, shouldering away the door of the locker, where it rang off the surface of the one next to it.

 ** _CLAK CLAK! CLAK!_** -Three shots, sparks flew away from three new, ragged gashes torn into the drab metal by his flank, right behind his hip- Glen found a partition between the end of the locker row and the wall of the chamber's end, stuffed himself in the crevice, and struggled with quaking hands to stuff the clip he had snatched up into the receiver of the Colt.

He slid in the mag', pulled back the hammer with his thumb, and whirled around over the flank of the locker next to him- he pumped three rounds into the doorframe he had come from- **_CLK CLK CLK_** -shifting of uniforms and gear, a curse, two men folded into the shadow on either end of the frame.

Glen crouched and worked himself back behind his makeshift cover. If only that damned sociopath in the mech suit hadn't taken his God damned shotgun, this situation might not have been as much a problem as it was.

 ** _clkclkclkc..._** -He heard something click and roll across the floor of the chamber, and it came to a stop relatively close by.

Glen's chest hurt from how hard he sucked in his breath for the second time.

He could try to throw it back, but those soldiers would have to be fools to not cover the doorframe in the meantime before the bang.

Glen and Mariah, when they had engaged in close quarter fighting, Glen would use plasma grenades pretty heavily to clear out rooms and spaces, and whenever he'd toss a few into a chamber, he would always watch for people who would scramble to move away, or to give him his explosive back.

There was a feeling of hopelessness, of impossibility to escape- as the victim in the corner, you either stayed still and died in the blast, or you moved, and then were shot.

Glen wouldn't die sitting on his naked ass, at least.

He aimed around the corner, and sprinted into the heart of the room- he drained his entire clip into the doorframe- the darkened twilight of the chamber was lit white and yellow with each quick succession of ignited weapons' barrels.

The soldiers in the hall beyond, their own guns added to the fury, bullets flew all over the place into the storage chamber as they scrambled to avoid Glen's cone.

He had his fingers over the green explosive- he fell onto his chest, his arm tossed up, adrenaline numbed the concrete grinding into his sweat-drenched skin. Glen almost added to his tumble by planting his face into the floor too- at least, as he struggled to crane his neck up, he was blessed with not having to deal with THAT.

 ** _PRSSKSKKKKK!_** -A plume of neon green fire, the doorframe bucked and kicked off arms of dust from developing cracks that were broken into its surface, a gun flashed a few more times back there, bullets eating into the wall and ceiling ahead, tumbling, organic spillage.

Glen breathed heavily, the cold of the floor burning into his gut, his groin, his breast- he heard nothing from his prior assailants, and breathed out a sigh of relief- falling back onto his chin, he shut his eyes, enjoyed that cool feeling against his burning hide.

Then, he clenched his teeth, and hissed in sudden pain, wrenching pain.

He struggled onto his knees, his left arm protesting horribly- he glanced over his flank, and saw a trench of crimson, a spatter of dispelled blood went down to his elbow, and he felt a pulse of pain around the area of impact with each heartbeat.

"...Agh... Damn it." Bullet flew right through.

" _Glen? Where are you? You're hurt, what happened?!_ "

"Got shot."

" _-H-How bad?_ "

"Arm. Non-lethal." Glen grunted, standing up. "I have biofome with my gear, I'll suit up, where's Tuli?"

" _He's looking for me._ "

"Stay low. Don't confront him directly."

" _Don't take long?_ "

"Agreed. This really fucking hurts."

" _Oh Glen..._ "

"Don't worry about me, stay alive." Glen bent down to retrieve his vest. "-We'll beat this guy, Mariah."

" _I'll tear him in half._ "

"Yeah, you will, I know it."

" _I'm sorry for fighting with you so much._ "

"...I'm sorry for fighting with you too."

Glen took a deep breath, and opened up his vest.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

There were exactly five thousand active Company employed personnel living in and operating inside this facility on Epsilon-Candis, labeled 'Y-15' in Yutani records, it was under the jurisdiction of the 'Augmentation' department in the representative command of the corporation's infrastructure.

The numbers, though high, were not something that worried Glen, despite being surrounded by exactly what had been stated- around five thousand people -almost three thousand of which were registered as armed defensive operatives. The thing that worried him, was the 'Augmentation' Department having control over the entire site.

See, Weyland Yutani was divided into several varying bodies of command, they basically were groups of representatives who pursued different franchises and means of expansion in the Company's drive for increased revenue and size.

The Augmentation Department handled medical and organic/bionic enterprises and operations in the Company, that was who controlled Y-15 here.

The Protection and Enforcement Department, were basically all of the armed guards and security synthetics that Glen and Mariah had fought through across space in their effort to destroy Weyland- they were the branch that trained and equipped the corporation's private armies and were omnipresent everywhere the Company was.

The Internal Department sounded very close to what it did, specifically, it was the Company's 'Secret Police' and intelligence gathering section, they also monitored cases of possible rebellion from other departments or staff.

The Engineering and Robotics section handled production of the Company's military grade and security grade equipment, and the appropriation of old decommissioned equipment from the Navy, then there was the Research and Development section- all the scientists and lab workers -and finally there was the Corporate Administration of Law and Order, and they were the police forces maintaining Company power over some of the colonies that Weyland basically ruled as states.

This was why Glen had been working most of his adult life against this force- it was just so gigantic, immeasurable in its expansiveness and power. Glen truly believed that one day, he could collapse Weyland Yutani given enough time and firepower, but... now that he had Mariah, it made his personal war harder.

Glen never had a reason or a desire to maintain some kind of a personal life, or pleasures for himself or others... Mariah gave him reason and cause for those things now, and, just with the way he was set up, he made those things almost impossible.

Glen wanted nothing more than to finally be done with this eternal fight, it was all he did, all he lived for... He loved Mariah, he wanted to be with her, not the Company.

So, that begged the question- would Yutani be able to recover from the blows he had dealt it, IF, he took a few cycles to actually live like a normal human being? That was what scared him, what if he did follow his heart and whole bunch of innocent people paid for it?

Of course, Glen almost never was exposed to the very civilians of the galaxy he protected, the things he deemed as the 'Common Man and Woman' -but whenever he traveled to a planet that was recovering after the Company had given up, from Glen blowing all of their installations there to hell, and he saw people getting along, and doing things their way, with passion... It, well, it refueled his drive to keep going.

Mariah just wasn't wired that way, he supposed that was because she had never 'Grown up' in a sense, she had literally been born in a tube, and she had been raised, in a tube, and then a laboratory with scientists who saw her as corporate property, there wasn't much room to have heart for human society from that.

Mariah wasn't entirely understanding of the prospect of 'Innocent People' because the only humans she came into contact with were ones that she had to kill, and Glen, and while her relationship with those two things were radically different, she didn't see society the same way he did.

They can wait a few years, right?

-That's the point she argued, and in a modern warfare setting, NOTHING, was a standstill job, if you sat too long, you were dead, and the enemy would evolve past you and brutally crush you.

But when Glen looked at it through her eyes (even if she physically didn't HAVE any) -he understood the logic behind her thought processes on it.

And, who knew, maybe... maybe the Company really WAS on its knees enough that Glen could relent from his personal war for awhile without any repercussions he couldn't re-do to them.

The longer he slunk through the halls of the fortress, the more he considered it sound, or, sound-er'.

"Patrol." Glen muttered.

" _Take the doorway, on your left._ "

"What's in there?"

" _It's a lift chamber, I think._ "

"You know where it goes?" Glen rubbed his gloves together from his efforts as he mentally conversed with his Xenomorph- he slacked closed the silvery lid of a rectangular storage container with a big fat 'WY' painted atop it, and sealed view of the dead guard's body he had stowed inside, the mag-locks clicked and he slipped away.

" _It goes up._ " Mariah informed- she was in one of the vent ducts crisscrossing the ceiling above.

"There an identification label over the frame?" Glen crouched behind a few crates- he peaked over the rim as a group of almost thirty men wielding pulse rifles slowly stalked by- their bootsteps mulled under the growl of a anti-personnel Buggy's engine whilst the vehicle slowly meandered in the center of the squad down a large lane-like aisle.

This was one of the internal highways that crisscrossed inside the fort- they all lead to storage hangars and workshops, and the great gates that lead to the upper levels surrounding the canyon the installation was built near.

" _Section Clearance... Red?_ " Mariah sounded dubious. " _I forget what that means._ "

"That is a good find," Glen smirked. "Just in this doorway over here?"

" _There's a few people inside._ "

"Soldiers?"

" _No, scientists, by the labcoats._ "

"Easy."

Glen stood up, he checked down both sides of the grand vehicular aisle- down the way, he saw the rear of the Buggy, the backs of the team of men around it gradually vanishing down the passage in that direction.

A silver bulkhead slid aside as the vigilante stepped up and subsequently through it without hesitation- on the other side, a square chamber, concrete floor and tall ceiling- three men stood there on the flank exterior the door- they all had shaven heads, one wore goggles, and they had white and yellow coats over jumpsuits- they were discussing something, all eyes lowered to a dataslate one held.

Glen smiled underneath his visor and gave off a curt- 'Morning' -to them, and one of them looked up and waved a hand dismissively.

He was chuckling as he crossed the chamber towards a double set of elevator doors- he clicked the keypad on the frame's side, and waited for the lift to come down to him. He whistled a tiny tune and chuckled harder at feeling Mariah's shock and awe.

" _How did you-?!_ "

"Civvies' don't know one uniform from another, Mariah." Glen whispered. "We can't leave too many bodies."

 ** _DING_**

-The doors slid aside and revealed the cramped interior of the lift cart, paneled, reflective, gunmetal colored with a grated roof of gray centered with a maintenance hatch above and two light strip fixtures.

" _Glen? Where does this elevator go to?_ "

"There's a control kiosk overlooking the vehicle bay nearby."

" _How do I follow you up?_ "

"You see a filtration vent anywhere? Any that open to the shaft?" Glen muttered, boarding the lift, watching the doors slide shut- he cringed when one of the scientists out of the trio he had passed before looked up at him suspiciously.

" _...I think I do._ " Mariah communicated after a moment- Glen clicked the yellow 'UP' key on the frame. " _Do I ride the lift up?_ "

"No." Glen looked at the sealed hatch on the elevator's roof. "Crawl up there and find a way into the kiosk chutes."

" _I'll try._ "

"I checked the specs, remember? There's a way." The lift clunked, thudded, Glen kept watching the hatch nervously as machinery grumbled and he felt a heightening of pressure in his feet and stomach from the cart going up. "Another vent cover? Anything?"

 ** _CLINGING-inging..._** -Something metal, flimsy, and shattered rebounded off the roof of the elevator cart- it made Glen go wide eyed, and jump.

"-Jesus-!" He gasped. "-You alright, babe'?"

" _I just tore it off, don't wet yourself._ " She chuckled. " _This leads right into a chute, I think._ "

"Be careful, stay quiet."

" _Yep._ "

"...All we need is some waiting room theme to make this ride the full package." Glen smiled, waiting for the lift to make its full way up- he slid his shotgun out of its holster and checked the two rounds chambered lazily.

" _...Yeah..._ " Mariah hummed musingly. " _...I..._ "

"I'm sorry for yelling, AGAIN." Glen nodded when she faltered. "I've been thinking about this vacation."

" _I'm sure of it._ "

"You mean more to me than the galaxy, Mariah. This war of mine-"

"- _There's people in here, some are armed, I count six._ " Mariah interjected. " _How do you want to handle this?_ "

"-U-Uhm..." Glen's mouth flapped a few times, his concentration skewed. "...F-Find any wires up there?"

" _I can look... I might make some noise._ "

"Do it quick. Take out the lights, yellow wire, remember?"

" _Same as always._ "

"I'm almost there-" He unpinned the safety on his gun- closed his eyes, got a general idea of where all the men in this kiosk were just by connecting to what Mariah had sensed- it was like shapes made of fog without a color, Glen didn't know how else to describe the telepathic link they shared when it came to objects and sights seen. "-Get the guy by the window, from above."

" _Lights cut- I think they heard me, they're arming-_ "

"-I'm here, I shoot, then you jump."

" _I understand._ "

 ** _DING_**

-The doors started to slowly hiss and slide apart- what was beyond them was shaded black, dark, hued tan from the lights emanating outside in the gigantic vehicle storage hangar, viewable from the kiosk's rear in a strip horizontal, above a row of consoles.

Four other monitoring stations were in the center of the square chamber- four staff workers, technicians and officers probably, were gazing around the room in confusion from their seats at these stations- a soldier stood looking out the window, his outline black against their illumination.

"-and what the fuck happened to the lights?" -There was another guy standing right outside the doors to the elevator as they parted- an NCO, by the looks of him, grizzly fellow, full armor and uniform, the whole nine -old Ranger Rick spun around when the lights from the elevator showed into the darkened kiosk.

Glen raised his shotgun, and killed the man point blank.

 ** _CLK-! SPhasshshhh..._** -The officer's chest popped open and made a great crimson spatter all over his vest, where the shattering slugs penetrated out his back and decorated one of the console stations with speckled red.

A tile tore off from the ceiling- a black, lithe shape zipped from above in the blink of an eye, and the soldier by the windows made half a scream, before a curved blade lashed out and sliced the upper section of his cranium off- blood fountained and Mariah tackled one of the tech guys.

An effortless slaughter, a little distasteful, it felt ugly shooting unarmed people- but they were Company, and that was reason enough for Glen. He drained the last slug into the closest man to the elevator doors- cast the bloody body to tumble onto the floor- he slid out his Braxis Colt, aimed round the kiosk and put a bullet into two separate chests in quick succession.

 ** _CLAK! CLAK!_** -The cadavers joined the first to fall, Mariah stood up in the shadows, and slid her victim from his impalement via chest to her elongated claws, off and onto the floor. The kiosk was theirs, for the time being.

"Good?" Glen strode quickly ahead, over the dead NCO, splayed out down there with his chest opened.

" _Unharmed._ " Mariah sighed, her prehensile head turning to follow him as he stood over the consoles lining beneath the kiosk windows.

Down there, almost a three story drop, was a hangar chamber that was big enough to fit a small frigate class capital ship- huge light fixtures hung from a metal ceiling, beaming down onto a concrete floor that had motor lanes painted on it in white and yellow, there were rows and rows, up and down horizontal, of almost a hundred of those AP Buggies.

" _Wow, I hadn't seen THIS on the way in..._ " Mariah stood next to him and gazed through the glass too. " _But all I see are those offroad vehicles..._ "

"No, right there, third row, midcenter," Glen pointed down- and indeed, breaking the commonality of pattern from all the Buggies, were a trio of blocky vehicles, giants in comparison to those around them- they each had four tread links, and meaty turrets held aloft by uprisings in their sloped, armored hulls.

Three M-88 Hydra-Fiend Type Light Tanks, old colonial models used by garrisons around eighty some odd years ago during humanity's 'Upper Theta Phase Expansion'- that had occurred during the population booms in the Inner Ring Colonies, the settlement effort that founded most of the Fringe Ring Colonies, some of the most lawless, including here, in this sector.

" _How do you plan on using those tanks, Glen?_ "

"I just want one." Glen started clicking some keys on the console below him- illuminating the kiosk a multitude of greens and blues from the lights above still being out- his face was highlighted as such as he accessed a few controls. "See those clamps on the Buggies' wheels? And on the tread boxes for the tanks? Safety restraints, vehicles can't drive off without a scheduled request for release."

" _And this kiosk controls those clamps?_ " The Xenomorph grinned toothily.

"Yes." " _-Cell row 66, Vehicle-8, requesting unlock, passcode-_ " -A voice buzzed from a com mic on the console's board- Glen didn't even wait for the passcode from the man, and clicked the transceiver. "-Granted, you're good Vehicle-8."

He clicked a rune on the console.

 ** _chmchm..._** -A distant shift of metal. They both looked through the window and saw a vehicle towards the back of the great hangar jolt, and the gear-jointed clamps over its wheels open and fold into the floor- a guy, way too far away to see just WHO was up here -waved in appreciation, and boarded the steps to the driver's cab of the Buggy.

"See that? The tanks have the same thing." Glen accessed their slots- he aimed for the one in the middle.

" _Won't someone become suspicious of a full-fledged armored vehicle being released for no reason?_ "

"That's why we need to move quickly."

" _How will you start it?_ "

"See the engineers behind the tanks? By that console?" Glen pointed again. "One of them is bound to have the clearance chip."

" _Where do I come into this?_ "

"Take the chutes again," Glen nodded for the ceiling panels. "-This whole fortress is littered with vent shafts, the people down here need them to breathe- find one over or close to the tanks, drop down when I start the engine, and get in."

" _...I've, never driven a... TANK before, Glen._ " Mariah cocked her head. " _Actually, I've never driven anything in my life._ "

"I'll drive, there's an auxiliary seat in front of the commander's, I remember this design."

" _What are we even DOING with it once we start it? They'll be all over us._ "

"We drive it to the maintenance shipment ring on the lower sublevel, below this one,"

" _Uh-huh?_ "

"We shoot our way past Red level clearance,"

" _Get on with it, Glen._ "

"I'll use that 200millimeter cannon to put a round in Site Y-15's main power reactor core," Glen grinned, and stated this proudly. "Then we'll drive next door, and I'll put a round into the life support cells in the barracks blocks. If the base suffering a tactical grade explosion doesn't kill everybody, the lack of breathable atmosphere will."

" _...Glen..._ "

"...Eh? Why are you looking at me like that?"

" _How do you plan on getting us out, of the deepest recesses of the same fort, that you're going to detonate a nuke in?_ " Mariah asked smartly, her tail curling behind her. " _Or is that just collateral damage?_ "

"We steal a ship, we'll have time."

" _This is so far fetched, it's kind of ridiculous, Glen..._ "

"It's a quick way to knock the whole base out, and to get us a ride out of here." Glen nodded- he punched the rune to open the locks on the tank in the middle of the trio.

 ** _chm-chm..._**

-"Remember, jump down only after I'm in, and I start the engine, I'll open the hatch for you."

" _I certainly hope we don't DIE or anything, that's pretty permanent, you know._ " Mariah ran a claw down her fanged face.

"We have worked with worse." He smiled at her- reached over, and rubbed a glove over her padded shoulder. "I promise, this will work."

" _I believe you._ "

"Let's do this."

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	5. Chapter 5

**_Here's something kewl, if you're friends with me on Steam, I'll have a story update notification that I'll pop up whenever I submit a chapter to any of my stories, in addition to Twitter posts._**

 ** _Have an awesome-sauce day_**

 ** _~Don_**

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Every moment, that he had spent in his life, had been spent on the prospect of the human mind, and what he could do, and how he had to do it, to make the human mind malleable, programmable, like a computer.

All the human mind was at the end of the day, the brain, the stem, all the internal workings that made it apparent to identify and study human intelligence, behavioral patterns, subtleties, emotions and activity- all it really was at its core, was a really, really powerfully unique computer system.

It just had no chords, or plugs, or circuits, or breakers and boards- it was constructed of flesh and blood, bone and marrow, cells and organics- and to date, there was no such thing as a piece of technology that could truly replicate the unpredictability, the uniqueness, and thinking power of the human brain.

Doctor Aderan C. Tuli had spent all those moments collectively in one drive, with one goal- and this had created a man who was a megalomaniac, he was paranoid, and he purposefully suppressed his own professional understandings and teachings when considering his own psyche.

Since childhood Tuli had been obsessed with the idea of control, of domination, or being a ruler and the highest step in a hierarchy of authoritarian manner and principle- he read about monarchies and royalty in Old Earth, he read about Europe, and Asia, and was inspired by people like King Edward, or King Louis.

Becoming a figure of supreme authority, of being able to determine the paths of millions of lives beneath his own fascinated and intrigued Aderan Tuli for as long as he could remember- as a small boy, he had dreamt of being a king in the dark ages.

However, Tuli knew nothing of politics, of militarism and leadership, and he had no option in his life to enter to any form of power on his home world of New Singapore- the planet that had become rich for its emerald mining industry, for which he would be ousted from taking benefit from as well.

The colonial administration had deemed him- 'A Menace' -to the people of Singapore on the grounds of the 'Side Projects' he had used his laboratories for when he wasn't researching the gems and mineral compounds keeping the planetary economy afloat.

People had been hurt, some killed, some were... turned into something else, a variation, of different things... Needless to say, Tuli's reputation was tarnished, but also first baptized in Singapore- for in the penitentiary station orbiting the colony, he was transferred by 'Interested Parties' and before he knew what was happening, there was a massive multi-quintillion corporation offering him equipment, subjects, and a job in exchange for his talents.

Tuli was an evil, evil, evil man and he took this opportunity on such grounds without question- for anyone who was willing to provide him with his primordial playground of sadism and scientific fantasy, was an ally of his.

Weyland Yutani put him on the oceanic world of Barnandos, where the colonists that had settled the planet almost a hundred years ago, and had constructed massive underwater dome cities, were rife for experimentation and subject usage.

In total, Tuli transferred and subsequently 'Used and discarded' -six hundred and seventy six convicted criminals and felons of varying degree in their offenses, that the Company interdicted and transferred to the facility of Y-88 on Barnandos- Tuli was even able to get away with twenty refugees and colonists being transferred.

People were like an ammunition for him in his fight to perfect an ultimate standard and procedure to forcibly dominate and control the human brain, and through much trial, error, blood and piled cadavers- Tuli finally hit something.

His work culminated around bionics and robotic augmentation- things to 'Mindwipe' victims like one would erase the data on a motherboard or standard computing system. Tuli believed that a empty template- a mindless human body -could be programmed and used like a piece of equipment, and that if it was augmented enough, it could be virtually immune to wear and tear.

While this didn't exactly make any of the newer cutting age electronics and artificial intelligence of the current century obsolete, it certainly provided a cheaper and readily available alternative, or supplement, to robotic and mechanical task forces, or work forces of the Company, which they applauded him for.

Tuli was then transferred and promoted to base head at Y-15 on the desolate world of Epsilon-Candis- where he had spent years perfecting and building a bionic army of mindwiped, automated, flawlessly loyal soldiers to manufacture for the Company's purposes.

There were talks among the upper boards of replacing most if not all of the synthetic platforms that were in service as security and ground teams for the Company armed forces, with Tuli's 'Bionic Zombies' and it assured his ascension within Yutani.

Thus with such ferocity did he defend Y-15 against two beings that had apparently been tearing down great aspirations across the Company for a number of years- and they were a problem enough that high command, and the head boards, were afraid of them.

Glen Hannson, orphaned at a young age, parents neutralized to protect the authenticity of 'Project Xeno' the cultivation, breeding, modification and weaponization of _Xenelis Projocti_ \- or Xenomorphs, alien organisms that had terrorized human communities since the year 2500.

Xenomorphs had originally formed on some kind of 'Home Planet' which had been either destroyed or lost to records, but their species had propagated on hundreds of other worlds across the galaxy, and some had unfortunately been populated by humans.

The thing that started to switch Tuli's deranged interest from simply the bionic and mind controlling industries, to something else of a research project about Xenomorphs, was when he dug up evidence in Company, and Navy, archives, that spoke to the Xenomorphs being artificially relocated to these other planets, long before human colonization of space.

Evidence was also high, that the documented extraterrestrials who had come into contact with humanity on several violent occasions- a race of reptilinoid beings referred to as the Yaujta -were responsible for such relocations during the time of a unified civilization.

Nobody knew very much about the Yaujta race, as, normally, whenever they were encountered, they were hostile and were using highly sophisticated weapons technology to attack humans as 'Prey' in sick hunting rituals they undertook individually or in groups.

The Navy had developed much better equipment and tactics to deal with the Yaujta over time- this subsequently improved Company ability to fight them -and over time, so many Yaujta hunters were being killed that the race started to become thinner and thinner in population.

Tuli had done some digging, some offworld excursions- he found a scientific gem on the world of Thraka -ironically, a facility hit and destroyed by the same vigilantes he would have to defend Y-15 from.

He had ported his discovery back here to Epsilon-Candis, and based on data recovered from the find, his ability to convert and augment people into bionic soldiers was astoundingly hastened.

That was why, he had kept it locked away in the Red access command tower to the base's north for months, and why no other onsite staff were to be aware of its existence besides synthetics personally maintained and programmed by Tuli himself.

The northern tower had been his personal section of the fortress- against Company policies and regulations and every single damned law they had written for him and his comrades -but Tuli's obsession with control, and discovering more ways TO control, drove him even against those he deemed his liberators.

He was sick man, he had hurt so many people in a drive for something that was mad and nonsensical- and he still was propelled into the self-created ideology, that if he did not lay his life on the line for what was left of Y-15, that everything he had spent his life doing and accomplishing, his life work, would all be for naught.

" ** _Come down from there Subject 6,_** " Tuli grumbled through the amplifiers of his suit- pacing around the main chamber with his autocannon aimed for the ceiling above where the Xenomorph had fled to. " ** _Yes, 6, I've read your file, I know all about you indeed._** "

The suit rattled metallically as Tuli spiraled the cockpit around to check his flank- he heard gunfire in the distance, screaming, from possibly some of the side-mounted sections to the main lab, now thoroughly ruined.

Glen Hansson was going to rearm himself, he knew this... He needed to kill the Xenomorph first, and then deal with HIM.

Maybe if he pissed her off enough...

" ** _6, on the topic of your file,_** " Tuli spoke loudly. " ** _I've read some peculiar accusations by corporate intelligence as to you and that man- now, please hear me -many have found it repulsive and impossible, but, I kindly implore you to die today with some measure of remnants being left over from your corpse. I am, after all, very interested and would like to examine your internal systems for myself during the autopsy and dissection._** "

He kept the barrels of his gun spinning- the claws on his suit trembled with anticipation to countering a leap that did not materialize.

" ** _I think I'll keep you alive, 6, use mincemeat ground from your friend's body to keep you alive long enough to scan relevant data, get a new template of you so the board can attempt to duplicate you at their next whim... You are, after all, our property._** "

 ** _CLUNG-CLK!_** -

-THERE she was.

A weight from the side slammed into the suit's left pauldron- Tuli grit his teeth and tried to steady his control over the mech against the force that had impacted him. Metal and servos screamed and whined, he kicked through some of the debris littering the floor of the lab.

Through all the noise, Tuli didn't physically hear the reptilian hisses that the Xenomorph gave off in her drive to jam the blade of her tail in just the right place- but the good Doctor DID begin to receive alarms inside the cab from a mechanical disruption.

-That, and he heard something break.

 ** _CSH-! ringinring..._** -Something snapped off and flittered away to oblivion.

 ** _*WARNING- BELT DISRUPTED - WARNING*_** -Flashed on the tiny module by Tuli's waist in the lower sections of the cockpit. He bowed his shoulders and willed the suit to shake itself down- kind of like how a dog would attempt to cast water from its fur after leaving the source of liquid.

 ** _WHM-WHM-WHM-!_** -The suit made a flailing noise each time- the arms whistled through the air, the legs buckled, and Mariah was giving off every single cussword she knew as she held on her dear life over Tuli's shoulder plating.

She clamped down with all her claws, pressed her tail down- and she felt her world rush back and forth, back and forth, back and forth- and it made her head swim.

 ** _Clm-!_** -Something rough by her hind ankle.

Mariah looked down, and realized, to her horror- that there was this big robotic claw with silvery appendages, clasped over her left leg just above the foot.

Tuli had curled his arm over the cab and now, he finally had her.

" ** _THERE you are, Subject 6!_** "

The Doctor flicked his arm down, and yanked the Xenomorph off his shoulder, where her claws left drag marks from her inability to hold herself down any longer against such augmented, robotic strength.

He threw her onto the deck- **_PF-TACK!_** -her black body rebounding off the flooring in a tumble of onyx-hued limbs, she bounced twice, the second impact less vehement- then she settled in a pained sprawl, her tail curling by her legs.

" ** _Damned insect..._** " Tuli grumbled- glancing once at the readings layout in the cab -he saw that the Xenomorph had damaged the receiver sleeve for his autocannon, but it didn't look catastrophic, the gun would still function, he just had to watch for that kind of attack. " ** _-Forget the dissection, I'll throw you in a grinder._** "

 ** _thwmp-!_**

 ** _BMMMMKKK!_** -Tuli was suddenly blinded by a great miniature sun that bloomed over the entire flank of his suit, he heard tearing steel, flashing boughts of loose electricity, and he saw sparks kick from the side of is interior cab.

The suit lumbered off to the side, reeling- contrails of luminescent flame followed it ghostly, and revealed a blackened sprawl of damage that whispered trails of soot in its wake, a canyon of charcoal in the mech's rib section.

Tuli shook his head rapidly- dizzy from the little dance he had been forced into -he checked his feed again, and felt his mouth go limp.

 ** _*WARNING- BELT NOT ATTACHED- INOPERABLE -ATTACH BELT -WARNING*_**

That explosion had wrecked his autocannon.

"Eh! Tuli!" -Glen called over, sliding another grenade into the muzzle on the chin of a Pulse Rifle he had appropriated from Tuli's soldiers. "-Let's play catch!"

 ** _thwmp-!_**

" ** _-HANSSON-!_** "

 ** _BMMMMKK-!_**

Another burst of fire and flecking shrapnel- this time, dead center the cockpit of the suit. The armored ribs protecting the cab were bypassed and then blown clean off from BEHIND, and the good Doctor, and the very heart of the suit, vanished in a vomiting torrent of flame and smoke.

The mech suit cast its arms into the air, it stumbled backwards and shook the whole building- then tripped backwards, and was gone in a spray of dust and soot, there was screaming steel, breaking concrete- dust flooded the whole laboratory.

Mariah, who had still on the floor, finished standing up from her tensed position prior- she gripped a claw over her head and shook it repeatedly.

"-Mariah? Good? Are you good?" Her claw was taken up in Glen's hand whilst he rushed before her, his eyes wild underneath his helmet- the Xenormorph grinned toothily through the pain of her tumble at him.

" _You found your things, I see._ " She laughed, and glanced over his shoulder to the mess the fallen mech suit had made. " _Thanks._ "

"We have to get to that ship, Mariah, we have to." Glen squeezed her fingers in his. "We can use it to wreck the tower, get a ride out of here."

" _But, Glen, it's... it's not-_ "

"I know it's not, I can figure it out, we have to go, quickly!"

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Back on Thraka, the area had been undergoing a significant rainy season- as, the continents of that world were seemingly ALWAYS drowned by wet weather -thus there were a lot of spotlights and sentry stations.

Weaving through people's line of sight wasn't exactly the same as weaving through machines' line of sight- machines and robots had a way of penetrating certain covers and techniques that could fool humans.

Here, on Epsilon-Candis- Glen hadn't had to really worry about too much robotic or A.I- based defenses -but now all of a sudden, it seemed like the worry for such had increased to a frightening level.

All of a sudden, as he had been advancing down the vehicle passage for the hangar- Glen had been forced to take to the shadows even more, as groups of five and six individuals, that simply were just not... HUMAN... anymore, started appearing to patrol.

They were the Bionic Zombies, people that had been mindwiped, augmented, and had had weapons installed in their bodies to be mindless soldiers for the Company, as the defense force for Y-15.

They each were different from one another in some way shape or form- some had bionics replacing half their faces, both their eyes, half or all of their limbs, there were gunmetal colored plates covering their chests and shoulders, or barrel-like cuirasses.

To and fro these biomechanical freaks would lumber down the passages in droves, their boots or bare feet thudding heavily against the concrete or decking they crossed.

This was the first time that Glen was seeing some of them up close, or outside of the designated rallying squares and laboratory storages they all had been restricted to- you could tell they had once been human -with their pale, lifeless skin, and their flat mouths with no expression whatsoever, blank eyes eternally locked forwards.

Who knew where the Company had even appropriated these creatures? They could've been criminals, settlers, refugees, stolen cadavers...

-Glen supposed the reason he was thinking of their possible past was because he wanted to limit for himself the amount of negative energy produced from destroying them- after all, usually when he killed people who were more anomalous in their origin than the Company staffs, it felt... weird, to say the least -what if these had been civilians?

He guessed it didn't matter anymore... These people were gone anyway.

" _How many of these things ARE there?_ " Mariah communicated to him worriedly. " _They're in every single passage._ "

"Whoever is in charge here is getting wind of what we're doing." Glen whispered, peaking from around a barrel, observing a trio of bionics stumble passed, with a single regular Company soldier chaperoning them from behind. "I have to reach that tank."

" _I found a vent cover relatively over it... I think?_ " He could sense Mariah sizing up the drop as she peered down from wherever she was in the hangar ceiling structure. He assessed what he could determine from her own sights through their mental connection.

"It's right on the money." He assured her- distracted briefly from a hollow, distant sounding voice of electronic origin announcing some scheduled patrol route coming to close -he heard Buggies being prepped in the hangar, and men shouting. "I think we just got a bit of a break."

" _They're sending six vehicles full of people away, I can see them..._ "

"That will give us some cover..." Glen checked both ways- zipped in a hunched sprint across a vehicle lane, and vanished between two parked Buggies and the clamps holding their wheels in check- he was in the first row, only a few more to go.

From down on the ground, glancing upwards- the hangar and understructure of the base looked absolutely... gigantic.

"I'm almost to the tanks."

" _I can see you._ "

"Are those engineers still with them?"

" _Yes. They'll be easy, Glen, I think one's drunk._ "

"Typical." -He zipped across another aisle- seconds after he did so, a Buggy screamed down the lane between the rows, leaving a ghostly contrail of dust in its wake.

" _Two synthetics, watch out, they're just ahead of you._ "

"I see them."

-They were taller than normal people, and unlike most of the soldiers on sight, their heads were obscured in commando-level helmets that were common to the Company's more elite units of infantry- they both carried armor-piercing carbine rifles in gloved hands- WY-90 models, nasty guns -and they were fully garbed in combat armor and the like.

Utterly silent, the pair strolled down the flank of the aisle of Buggies that Glen was hiding in- wedged between two of the vehicles, he leant against a tire and waited patiently for the towering synthetic men to pass.

They were almost as obvious in their stolen humanity as the bionics- they walked perfectly, in timed unison- they didn't glance about, move their heads or arms, or shift the weapons in their grasp -a pair of goosestepping statues, soundless, save the thuds of their boots.

" _I still hate them more than anything else in a gunfight..._ " Mariah commented- with good reason -some of the Company assets they'd had the hardest time killing were synthetic soldiers.

"I'm moving."

" _You're clear as far as I can see._ "

Another zip across another alley- Glen was now crouched between two more Buggies, and as he peered over one of the wheel guards- he saw the trio of monsters that he had been aiming for.

The M-88's just LOOKED nasty- they were light tanks, albeit, and only had room for a crew of two, and only needed one person to operate them- but for the kind of scenario they were dealing with, the tanks were a godsend.

There was a pair of engineers in slacks and Company staff jumpsuits meandering about behind the tank on the left- they obviously had noticed the release of the safety clamps on the tank in the middle, but were either too preoccupied or uncaring to give much else than a first glance.

One of them was seated in a wheeled swivel chair before a portable console station that had been rolled behind the tank the other was crouched near, a panel had been taken off and he was rifling through some sort of circuit link deep past the armor- he was up to his hip inside the bottom chin of the vehicle.

Both were oblivious- Glen easily crept up to them.

They both had their backs to each other, and subsequently him as well- keys were clicking, wires brushing- Glen slid his blade from its sheathe and struck at the guy near the console.

Mariah said that whenever Glen was going through the procedures to silently take someone down- whether lethal or non-lethal -that he looked like a Flytrap plant, like some of the ones on Thraka, or on Old Earth.

He slowly would fold closer and closer, creep and creep, and then he would silently snap forwards and neutralize the threat quickly and quietly- it was one of the things that impressed her in the first year or so to no end.

So, Glen was obviously practiced- the blade dug into the joint between shoulder and jawline -Glen wrapped an arm over the man's mouth, muffled a scream, curled the blade sideways, then down, and then sideways and up- like carving a smile in a jack-o-lantern.

Blood seeped out of the wound like sap from a breached reserve in a tree- it cascaded and gathered in the collar of the victim's uniform.

 ** _CLUNK-!_**

 ** _ScchhwTTTT-!_**

"-AAGH!"

Glen's own blood, froze like ice.

He wheeled around, let the corpse and chair tumble onto the decking loudly.

Mariah was there, right behind him- she slipped her tail out from where she had ran it through the other engineer's back, out of his chest- he slumped over, and twitched once. Glen blinked stupidly, and then looked at her with a consistent expression of shock.

" _He was going to see you!_ " The Xenomorph raised her arms and defended. " _Don't give me that look!_ "

"Mariah, darling of my life," Glen sighed. "-I love you SO much, you know that?"

" _...Holy shit-! Get the alarm up! Shoot that thing!_ "

-Shouting, footsteps all over the hangar bay.

Glen immediately zipped down to the body of the engineer behind him- Mariah was just about to help him search for the chip, but was forced to duck.

 ** _CLNK-CLNK!_**

-A pair of rounds bounced off the rim of the tank's turret spinal support.

" _Whoops..._ " She growled from behind one of the tread boxes. " _-I count twenty, coming down the aisle to the east._ "

"-Twenty?!" Glen roared, tearing the card from the engineer's belt. "Fucking golden."

He stormed past her, and stepped up on the first rung on the flank of the tank, between the two left tread boxes. Glen peered over the chassis' top, he saw the hatch for the driver compartment- and he saw a whole swarm of Company soldiers approaching from down the vehicle aisle, between the two Buggy rows just ahead.

"-Ah, shit." He grumbled- flinching when a few pulse rounds whizzed overhead, and sparks flew from fresh scuffs on the tank's armor. "I'm going in!"

" _-Glen-!_ " She went to yank him back down, but a round clipped close to her claw and she sucked herself back to cover. " _-Glen! Hurry!_ "

Glen Hansson had never quite stuffed himself inside a vehicle like he did that M-88- the driver's hatch shut only after his feet were squeezed into the hold lastly, where it slammed back down, and earned a trio of rounds against it, too late to hit the new occupant.

Inside the darkened interior of the tank, Glen fell flat on his face- **_CLUmp-pmp!_** -tumbled in a belly-down sprawl on the cramped floor of the hold, his boots stuck up in the air.

"-Damn it-!" He spat as he shouted. "Hold on, Mariah!"

There was a suspended control and direction ring held around a raised podium and chair for the tank operator right ahead of him- a small crawl space behind him lead to the auxiliary crew member's position at the nose of the chassis. Glen had to crawl and shove himself into the seat, he bumped his helm's cranium against the metal above him several times.

Getting himself situated, he slipped the blue, plastic card into the ignition console on the chair's left arm- and immediately, he heard a drawling, metallic growl.

 ** _FWHMM! WHM-whmwhmwhm..._**

 ** _gggggmmmmmmmm-_** Listen to that purr, eh?

Lights were brought to life, giving the interior cabin a dull red hue- holographic monitors zapped online, and Glen was given a panorama view, orbiting his head, of a 360' degree, a visual of everything in front of the tank's turret.

"Wow..." He muttered- glanced down -saw the two directional sticks on both sides of the control ring, littered with switches and buttons. It was just like the APC he had driven in Thraka, or the Company tractor on Basilus.

"Mariah!" He gripped the sticks- and yanked them eastward. "-I'll cover you! Get in!"

 ** _wwwhhhHHHMMMMM-_** the mounting for the turret whined and creaked, Glen's world shifted, and so too did the control ring and command seat as the superstructure for the M-88's gun rotated- he glanced up, and saw the inner guts of the 200millimeter gun right over his head.

The panorama showed the assortment of Company soldiers advancing steadily to the tank- they were close, just a few yards away- it was like scattering roaches.

There were around five or six guys at the head of the pack- they had their pulse rifles raised, and they didn't know initially what to expect.

 ** _whhhhmmmmm-! CLUNK clunk-_** -And then the M-88's turret swung halfway, and they were staring down the barrel of its main gun, aimed right down the aisle at them.

"-OH SHIT!" Someone screamed.

-Back inside the tank, Glen gripped hammer level by the chair's underside- he shifted it back, and then forwards.

 ** _-CHM-CHM-!_** -Two clunks of metal above, a round chambered.

He reached back up and pressed the key on the top of the left stick.

 ** _PMMMK! CLINGclingcling..._** A deafening clap of thunder, a lick of fire from the tank's muzzle, distilled swathes of grayish smoke in the aftermath- and a golden shell casing the size of his torso was catapulted from the turret's disposal hammer on the top left, where it bounced away on the decking outside.

- ** _CRRASSSKKKK!_** -A burst of fire and torn concrete, maybe ten or eleven men were atomized in the center of the infantry squad, the rest tumbled and rolled about, some being dismembered or shredded like Swiss cheese from shrapnel or concussive force- it was a ring of secondary death around the zenith flower of bright destruction.

"-YES!" Glen laughed triumphantly.

 ** _CRSK-! clk-CLM!_** -The hatch on the nose of the tank rattled, opened, let in a brief pillar of light, and then slammed closed again in the wake of a black shadow curling and reorienting in the compartment below his.

"-Mariah? You good?"

" _I'm fine! Start moving!_ "

"Agreed! Let's-!" Glen glanced up at the panorama around his head again- a Company soldier ran from between two of the Buggies on the right side of the tank, opposite his gun's direction- he held a launcher over his shoulder, and aimed for the turret. "-Crap! Mariah! Use the pulse cannon down there!"

" _Pulse cannon?! Where-?!_ "

"The sticks! Use the sticks! Quickly!"

" _These ones-?!_ "

"YES! Go! To the right! Cap that guy!"

Mariah slid her fingers as best they could around the sticks of her own smaller control ring, she yanked them to the right- used a smaller panorama view projected from the ring's top to see the soldier in question, and then clicked the runes on the sticks.

There was a pulse cannon, a rapid fire suppressive weapon located on a rotatable dish on the tank's front nose- it followed her direction -and then screamed a consistent stream of armor piercing rounds.

 ** _CRMMMMMM!_** -There was so much ammunition, that all it sounded like was a continuous and dulled buzzsaw.

The soldier briefly looked whole, and in the blink of an eye, came apart like he had been tossed through a blender- a small tidal wave of crimson slabs and bits catapulted with blackened chips of his gear and heavy weapon, then stained the floor he had been standing on with a tendril-like skidmark.

" _OOOooooo..._ " Her tail curled behind her. " _Using this gun makes me wet._ "

"I'm putting the tank in gear, hold on, and watch out for more!"

" _I understand!_ "

Glen held down the triggers for tread control, and shoved the sticks forwards.

It took two jolts that threatened to bounce their heads around with each- but Glen was able to crawl the treads over the folded safety clamps- the M-88 growled and creaked, the suspension rattled, and they both were overcome with a feeling of motion whilst the armored vehicle began locomotion.

Twisting the sticks to the right, Glen angled the nose and front boxes before he could clip the Buggies that were in the row ahead of them- he presented the front armor to the aisle, now choked with smoke everywhere and the screams of the wounded.

" _I can't see anybody... I can sense them, though._ " Mariah said.

"Keep watch."

Glen pressed the sticks forwards again, rumbled towards the carnage.

Indeed though, as Mariah had summed- there WERE other soldiers nearby, they were hiding between some of the parked Buggies, or had backtracked out of the aisle to avoid the tank's cone of fire- there were maybe three or four men convulsing on the outskirts of the blackened gash the 200millimeter had torn into the ground.

" _There's one!_ "

 ** _CRRRMMMMMMMM!_**

-Mariah sprayed one of the Buggies, the guy who had peaked over the tire cover lost his head and half his left shoulder- covered his buddies in blood.

"I see them." Glen switched to the turret- **_whhmmmmm-_** and pumped a single shot into the offroad vehicles lined up to their flank.

 ** _PMMK! Clingringring..._**

-The shell tore clean through the hood of the closest vehicle, and then implanted and imploded in the one directly next to it, there was a brilliant display of flashing light, a tower of flame, the Buggy unfortunate enough to be eviscerated leapt five feet off the ground a burnt heap of scrap, and then collapsed and folded over the next adjacent.

The vigilante and his Xenomorph were unopposed in the M-88, Glen kept it rolling forwards- he found the controls for the pulse cannon mounted in the mantlet besides the main gun, and combined with Mariah's cone of fire, there were twin streams of ammunition that peppered anything directly ahead of them.

What few soldiers had initially survived, or had gotten wind to keep their heads down before being spotted- scattered, and tried to keep on the sides and rear of the stolen equipment, waiting until the call for backup brought them the necessary weapons to deal with the threat.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	6. Chapter 6

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

Alarms, alarms, and more alarms.

There were flashing red lights everywhere, fluctuating the halls and passages of Y-15 a pulsating and dim crimson consistently, sirens were blaring roughly, men were calling out, and gunfire and explosions were rampant, and left a trail of destruction in the wake of a singular source.

Only moments ago, Glen and Mariah, the two fighters who had been seeing to undo the Company for around two years, had stolen an M-88 tank from the hangar contents of the base, and with Glen driving and operating the turret, and Mariah at the secondary gun- they had proceeded to butcher their way towards the heart.

Towers of flame broiled from Buggies that Glen had hammered with rounds from the tank's main gun, there were bodies in varying states of dismemberment and sprawl that were lying all over the interior of the great chamber- it was a scene purely out of hell, there was blood, screaming, flames and carnage.

" _There's more of them by the tunnel!_ "

"I have them!"

 ** _PMMMSK! CLINGringing..._** -The tank jolted, a Buggy with a team of men crouching behind it, snapped backwards with an indented impact of flashing light and kicked sparks belching from its cab, the rear turret operator- now silenced in his spraying of Glen's tank -flew out of the cupola and was subsequently spattered beneath the rapidly backtracking wheels of his own vehicle- the Buggy skidded ahead and then rammed into a wall, ceasing movement.

Pressing the M-88 forwards, Mariah swiveled her gun left and right, gave a quick peppering of fire in both respective angles, killed another five or six men who had survived the onslaught.

" _It's those bionic freaks again!_ " She mentally communicated, aiming her gun. " _Glen-! Glen, there have to be a hundred of them!_ "

"We can't stop now!"

" _Glen- do you see how MANY of them-?!_ "

"I'll run them over! Keep shooting!"

-Staggering, tumbling, and sprinting around the remains of the dead Yutani soldiers, and the burning heaps of Buggies, from all directions at once, came a sheer mob of potentially hundreds of these bionically augmented, and mindwiped cadavers.

Guns installed on their arms and even the centers of their chests, blared pulse ammunition that bounced, slid and ricocheted off the tank in every possible angle and inch, buzzsaws and chainsaws wired into their limbs revved and cut the air.

Mariah opted to draining her pulse cannon's tanks by swiveling and spraying everything in front of the M-88- she dragged the gun left, and then right, and then left again -a stream of rounds cut into bionics' with effective results.

Their bodies jolted, jerked and spasmed under the attentions of hers' and Glen's suppressive fire- heads were taken off, warms blown away, hips separated from torsos and vice versa, the shredding squelches of flesh meshed with the tearing of steel.

Blood shot out and stained the tread boxes of the tank's suspension, it pooled and then dripped from the creases of the vehicle's actual links as tens of corpses were rolled over and crushed, bionics' that were still active stumbled into and then folded underneath the tank's weight, joining the hellish road of slurry Glen left in their wake.

 ** _clm-CLMK-! clmclm... clm... limlm..._** -They could hear bodies of some of them tumbling on all sides of the tank outside the cabin, as some of the horrors threw themselves against the sides and rear, slid off the armor, or bounced off from sheer impact.

" _You don't think they can get in, do you?!_ " Mariah glanced up at her hatch nervously, waiting for her pulse cannon to refill another ammo box.

"-I'm not going to chance it-" Glen's speech was cut off- **_CLK-! clm-_** the hatch right in front of his head was yanked ajar, and it let in a square breach of pulsating red lights from outside, now disrupted, by the shadow of a round, disproportionately sized head.

The bionic sneered with yellow teeth, its pale skin highlighted crimson all over- it had once been a man, but now, there were goggle-like extrusions replacing both his eyes, and his cranium was a circuit veined cap of reflective gunmetal.

Glen took a fist from the sticks, yanked out his Braxis Colt, and shot the bionic zombie right in the forehead- where the creature's sneer was broken for a thin line of hurriedly shut lips, sparks and a tiny airborne worm of blood flew from a hole right over the bridge of his nose.

Glen reached forwards, gripped the inside handle for the hatch- and slammed it down -before another one could take the first's place, he slipped the claw lock over the bottom ridge to prevent such an incident from reoccurring.

" _-G-Glen...?_ " Mariah was looking back at him, silenced for what had just happened, and for how pale he looked.

"-Reload your gun." He gasped after a moment. "Keep shooting."

A steam roller churning through a sea of flailing limbs, howling monsters and discharging pulse weapons- Glen and Mariah kept strafing whatever they could with the M-88's pulse cannons, and Glen ran over the rest.

Just up ahead, Mariah saw through all the destruction, in a quick glance as she paused firing- the archway that lead to the tunnel Glen was aiming for -a gradually descending rectangle of reflective steel was slowly cutting off her ability to see beyond it.

Security lockdown measures, blast doors.

" _Glen!_ " She called back. " _They're trying to lock us in!_ "

"Not if I can help it."

 ** _PMMSK-!_**

-The tank shook as Glen fired another round, that clipped into the chin of the lowering door, and tore through the reinforced steel like a boulder through a sheet of tinfoil. It cast ragged remains of the door into the hallway beyond, what hadn't finished lowering from the slot above fell down in sections onto the floor below.

 ** _PMMSK-!_**

-For good measure, Glen shot the overhead section of the arch frame- there was a mushroom cloud of dust and fire, crumbling concrete and a burst of fire.

"Brace yourself!"

 ** _rrmmMMM-! KMK! Kmk..._**

-The cabin rushed up, jolted, rushed down, and jolted again as Glen ran over the small hill of rubble and steel he had made.

Behind them, for what few of the bionic zombies were left- the stragglers futile attempts to keep up were further mulled as they tried to climb over the debris from the smashed frame and door -the two vigilantes were unstopped as they rumbled down the passage.

" _Do you know where to go?_ " Mariah kept watch from her panorama, sweeping back and forth.

"Right turn, brings us by one of the office sections, we'll blow the kiosk and head for Red clearance."

" _I see some._ " Mariah offered almost musingly.

"Ah."

 ** _CRRMMMM! CRRRMMM!_**

-They both used their pulse cannons simultaneously, a trio of soldiers were turned into mincemeat just at the curve up ahead, staining the concrete crimson, with a sheen from all the lights reflecting about.

Glen slowly dragged the sticks in a turn to the right, and the M-88 maneuvered itself around the right corner, and grumbled down the aforementioned direction.

" _I guess they really didn't expect this one._ "

"You're right." Glen nudged down into her section of the tank with his boot. "You good, babe'?"

" _Peachy._ "

They passed a section of the passage that was lined with two rows of blue illuminated window slots, and a few bulkheads, with green 'WY' symbols acting as insignia on the concrete walls, alongside large identification labels reading- _Barracks-Block-G8_ **.**

Mariah opted for simply bypassing them.

" _We don't have time!_ "

"They're COMPANY."

" _Glen, this isn't-!_ "

"I'm shooting"

"... _Fine._ "

 ** _cshk-WKm..._** -The M-88 stopped.

 ** _Whhhmmmm-kck-_**

 ** _PMMMSSKK!_**

-The gun discharged, and the round put a trench almost as big as the whole tank into the front section of the barracks facility, fire and dust catapulted everywhere, and both pulse cannons blared in quickened sweeps to the breached interior of the living quarters.

Even though both of them couldn't see or hear it through the smoke, and just from being inside the tank- they had killed almost forty of the staff currently inside -wounded probably around the same amount, some died in their cots, still asleep from their daily solar naps.

Woefully unaware of the security breach that had been occurring, the scientists and workers in Barracks G8 were just some the first of more victims to Glen and Mariah's two-person war against everything the Company stood for in Y-15.

Glen put the tank in gear and kept pressing forwards- not even glancing back at the wanton chaos he had wrought, he just listened to the grumble of the tank, focused on controlling the sticks, and he kept his fingers over the triggers for the pulse cannon.

Mariah, beforehand, obviously had been invigorated by the power this stolen piece of equipment gave them- and she had a reason for that adrenaline -the people here literally had nothing to stop them.

After all, who could've expected two people to successfully breach a maximum security compound, and then wreck it from the inside with one of its own armored vehicles? That was the stuff of crazed, and delusional tales of epic heroes who didn't really exist.

Glen and Mariah, could beg to differ.

It only took six minutes to reach the security level Red clearance kiosk, dividing the general transportation routes of Y-15 from the central spinal structure, which, when followed down, would lead to the reactor powering many of the base's systems.

Truthfully, this was one of three such reactors, they were called 'Magnos' Generators, and they were fueled mostly by uranium, but some facilities across the galaxy who used them had found similar, but diverging sources of power.

The reactors here on Epsilon-Candis were powered by a crystal called Fuldinspar, it was mined on the furthest extents of the Outer Ring Colonies, and it had similar traits to uranium, and it lacked sufficient radiation to harm or kill things in proximity or handling of it... BUT, it still would make a pretty violent explosion should it be ignited.

 ** _PMMMSKK!_**

-The security door that had been lowered over the arch was shattered dead center, Mariah shot the concrete kiosk right next to it full of holes, the guards who had been standing idle, like fools, awaiting orders that weren't coming- died in either the blast or the subsequent mop-up from the pulse cannons.

None of it mattered, none of the resistance, because all the people that they missed would be ended by the reactor going critical.

The M-88 tank smashed through the holed door and shattered it like a wall of glass, strips of steel flew everywhere, discarded some of the bloody corpses of dead bionics that had been stuck or draped on top of the tank's hull in varied places.

The concrete of the aisle formed down for a ramp.

" _...Glen...?_ " Mariah glanced over her shoulder. " _...Are you sure we can make it out in time?_ "

"Yes." He answered, stone faced.

" _Are our lives really worth this one facility?_ "

"No. We'll survive."

" _What about the life support pods?_ "

"They are located next door." Glen yanked the lever by his chair back and forth- chambered a new round. "Hit the generator, make a U-turn, head east, hit the pods, and we roll for landing pad 6."

" _...Glen,_ "

"What?"

" _You've never rushed a fight like this before, Glen._ "

"Yeah."

" _...I don't like this._ "

"We got them by surprise didn't we?" **_CRRMMMMM-!_** -He held down the triggers, a quad of soldiers were vaporized, spattered to the concrete with entrails and copiously spilled blood by the M-88's front flank. "Watch your sights."

" _...I understand._ "

"Generator viewport is coming up in a few seconds- peg that guy there?"

" _Yep._ "

 ** _CRRRMMMM!_**

-"Three, two, one, here we go, there's going to be a bump."

 ** _CRK-! whm-whm..._**

-The tank crawled over a pair of yellow painted speed modulator strips, passed under a silvery arch, and emerged into a pentagon shaped chamber, that was so big, they couldn't see all the way to the other side of it, passed an immense tube of hexagon-patterned glass, the size of a building.

Parked around the tube in several locations were large, fat-wheeled hauler trucks, with specialized tanks bolted to their beds meant for the transportation of Fuldinspar crystals- and in the tube, behind the glass -was a gigantic pillar of glowing blue light.

A pylon of luminescent, and sheer energy- it originated from a projector base at the bottom of the tube -the reactor itself, was this projector and the receiver node at the top of the tube, all of this, being at least ten stories tall.

" _Wow..._ " Mariah cocked her head. " _That's the reactor?_ "

"Magnos Reactor," Glen nodded, stopping the tank, and aiming the barrel of the main cannon dead center the tube. "They're using Fuldinspar to keep it running. If this reactor goes, it'll create an explosion big enough to collapse this entire facility into the valley next door."

" _Is that guaranteed?_ "

"Not the total landslide part, no. But this, coupled with the pods going dead, will kill everyone and everything inside Y-15, then we'll steal a ship, and shoot down anything that tries to run."

" _Are you certain that they have gunships here?_ "

"I was certain of the tank." He smirked. "When I hit the reactor, don't look at it, it could blind you."

" _I don't have eyes, remember, genius?_ " She laughed at him.

"I don't want to take chances is all."

" _Hit it._ "

"Agreed."

" _-Wait-_ "

"What?"

" _...Exo suit, several squads, I see..._ "

"Fuck. They got another tank."

" _Glen, shoot it, shoot it now!_ "

-Doctor Aderen C. Tuli, up until today, had never made a poor tactical decision. He was always a man of stalwart certainties and definite actions, but wanting to hold back intercepting the intruders until he could appropriate another M-88 to counter theirs, was probably a bad idea.

Nonetheless, Tuli, the director and head of staff for the Weyland-Yutani Y-15 research and fortification installation, marched across the expansive width of the reactor floor of his prized base- he stood above a small contingent of his soldiers, and beside him, the M-88 on HIS side grumbled across the silvery deck.

A splotch of motion, and metal, approached Glen and Mariah, the suit was far enough away that it was a small, miniature man of steel stomping towards them, the soldiers were ants, the tank a toy tank.

They would have to hit the generator, and then run, and run for their lives if they hoped to reach the life support pods- they didn't have time to engage that big of a force.

Glen blinked, he lined the crosshairs with the beam of light.

" ** _Squads to left and right! Tank, behind me! Open fire!_** " Tuli cried from the amplifiers in his suit's cab.

Glen pulled the triggers.

 ** _PMMMSK!_** -The shell sailed, completely away from the incoming hostiles, it flew across the entire half of the reactor floor, and then, all hell broke loose, and Tuli and his unit, were unable to save their precious base as they aspired to.

The shell pierced the glass, shattered a small portion of area around the vicinity of penetration- and then it sailed into the beam of blue light beyond -Tuli, who had picked up the shot on his exo's scanners, jerked his suit up to stare in horror at what had just transpired.

He was able to give off a- " ** _-NO-!_** " For the five seconds he had.

The very air in the chamber was sapped of all noise, it became distorted- like heat would cause a liquid effect to the horizon of a desert -sucked inwards, and then popped outwards, and this blindingly bright, utterly enormous, mushroom cloud of blue fire bloomed in the center of the chamber.

 ** _ffwwhhhmm-MM-BMMMMMMMMMMMM!_**

-Most of Tuli's men were incinerated, or died in seconds due to the massive exposure of raw Fuldinsparian energy that bathed and poisoned the chamber in moments. Tuli himself felt his world rush, and his hearing become lost to him, as his exo was catapulted off its feet, and ground sparks into the silvery deck as it slid away from the concussive force of the blast.

The M-88 that the Company soldiers had brought with them, fired a single shot, before the g-forces that tossed Tuli away, flipped the tank onto its side, where the vehicle rattled and rolled off, casting pieces of armor everywhere.

" _-HOLY FUCK-!_ " Mariah mentally screeched. " _-WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!_ "

"I'M BACKING UP! HOLD ON!"

 ** _wwhhhWWMMMMMMM-!_** -The whole tank jolted, and then was caught in what felt like a draft of turbulence one would experience on the flight of an old atmospheric passenger plane. Glen yanked back on the sticks, turned his chair around and started trying to drive the tank back towards the way they had come from.

Ahead of them, the reactor chamber was being slowly torn apart- great swathes of silver decking were uprooted, trailing with them under-skeletons of industrial grade pipe systems and even entire tunnel networks all dedicated to the reactor's superstructure.

 ** _BNK-!_**

-The tank jerked, metal crunched, Glen felt heat on his face, and sparks bounced around the cabin.

" _-Oh shit!_ " Mariah looked up, and Glen glanced over to follow her gaze.

They'd been hit.

The shell had exploded on the front armor, left a huge indent that jolted the driver's hatch partially inwards, and had warped several internal plates, smoke was now drowning the nose of the tank, and Mariah had to hold her breath, and keep her head down.

Alarms blared in Glen's hearing- but he kept his attention on the sticks -and he kept reversing.

" _I think we have to abandon the tank!_ " Mariah cried- clawing her way out of the nose of the compartment, and gathering herself behind Glen's chair. " _GLEN! We're on fire! We need to get out!_ "

"We can't destroy these bastards' air supply without the tank! It's still functional!"

" _It won't BE functional much longer! We'll cook alive in here!_ "

"I'm DRIVING!"

-Whatever had been left of the kiosk and door beforehand was now shattered as the tank backed right through the left side of the frame, collapsed a small hill of concrete and metal sheets all over the deck, and atop the chassis.

 ** _PMmmmmmm..._** -The entirety of Y-15 shook under the duress of a dulled, godly clap of thunder, the red alarm lights all over the vehicle passage flickered.

Glen heard more system warnings screaming inside the tank by the second- he heard crackling flames too -but he swung the sticks around and drove the armored beast deeper into the facility anyway, gritting his teeth, grasping the sticks hard enough that his knuckles were pale.

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Company files were always structured around accurate data recording to the very utmost detail in degree, they held schematics down to the blueprint level of every facility in Company service, all of their armory information was in those databases, everything, they called it the 'Yutani-net' sometimes, and Glen had, maybe, been able to hack into a small sliver of it.

As had been demonstrated by their ability to move and sabotage so much in and around the base without being detected, Glen had developed a knack, if you will, for bypassing some of the most rigorously secured and maintained firewalls in the galaxy.

He had vital proficiencies with technology when it came to military hardware and software- years of working with variable runtimes and trojan programs had been a sort of training for him, and as Glen evolved his ability to manipulate computers, the Company was forced to adapt their cyber security.

Glen and Mariah certainly were causing a problem, he knew this, he restated it all the time EVERY time, just to renew his confidence when things were dull- they had destroyed so many valuable assets, information, years of research, and top thinkers and doers in the Company.

The problem was, that, despite all this pain they had dealt, the Company was just so big, that it was like chopping away at the heart of a great leviathan with a tiny blade, it took so much time for figurative 'Systems' to shut down and die, that for all Glen knew, Weyland Yutani could have been in its final wheezing moments of life, and they'd still fight for a few more months, maybe another year.

Even though it was only two people on their side, Glen and Mariah were not strangers to terming their lives as their 'War', a great war, waged against the most corrupt example of monopolistic expansion in humankind's history.

And, really, it was indeed a war, wasn't it? Wasn't war defined by people fighting? Forgetting the specifics of how MANY people were engaged, and for what reasons, and on what scale? Wasn't it still fighting? Killing? Chaos? What difference did it make how many people were causing or engaging it, wasn't it still bare bones, war?

Glen felt like it was, he hadn't had a peaceful solar night's sleep in all those two years since he had taken Mariah with him, not because of her, in fact, she was the only reason he could get ANY shuteye- but what they did every day kept him up.

Glen was always driven by his anger, he had always used negative energy as his fuel to keep the machine going, to keep his body moving, his mind working and thinking up new ways to maim, kill, and take the advantage from, his enemies.

Hence this style to his craft, he became resentful of a lot, he couldn't always control his temper, and there were some days where he was in such a pit that he wished, all those years ago- that the Xenomorph hive had killed HIM too, that fateful day where the colony he had called home was destroyed.

If it wasn't enough that his whole God damned family was murdered, he had to live with basically nothing else but the clothes on his back for most of his life- that was his only wealth, his intellect, his ability to create strategies to do what he needed to do, it was his strength, where he excelled.

Though, with such militaristic thinking, it was odd, even by his standards- that he hadn't been attracted to the idea of the Navy, or at least in part, adoption of their ideology. Glen knew why in a physical sense, he didn't sign up for the Marines- and that was because it was pretty obvious that the Navy and Yutani had some kind of love affair shit going on.

But also because the military was all about discipline, and adhering to a code of standardized living, to follow things a certain way in a brightly minded fashion- and if Glen was certain of anything for himself, he was not a disciplined man, he was not a standardized person, and he most certainly was not BRIGHT.

He was always so angry, angry at himself, angry at the universe, at the Company, at the army, at people, ALL people... It was sad, if you really thought about it. Glen spent so much of his time every day, just being angry.

What did that make him?

Did that make him selfish?

Did it put him at the level of the people who murdered his family?

Did it make him evil?

Did it make him a bad person?

Killing, the taking of another person or thing's life, was such a powerful, and ugly ability to have, it was awesome and terrible, and when people were granted that kind of power, there were abuses that were undisputedly bound to happen.

Granted, Glen had killed a lot of people, and he used almost anything to do it too, sharp objects, blunt objects, GUNS- that was the big one -lots of guns, weapons of mass destruction, automobiles and other vehicles, even his bare hands.

That all had warped him, there were times where the killing was... Gratified, relieving, it made him feel good, and remember this was all, in quote- 'Justified' -because he was killing enemy combatants.

See, that's where this became controversial, for, say, Mariah- Glen was killing, and he was killing A LOT, but it was JUSTIFIED, because, was it the definition of wrong, to neutralize people who were wrong first?

Was it wrong, to go by Hammurabi's Code? An eye for an eye? An arm for arm? Life for life?

Most people would say yes, and, solutions, things like- 'Prison' or 'Rehab' or banishment from society, things that were non-lethal, were put in place...

But, that didn't remove the problem.

If there was someone infected with cancer, would you JAIL the God damned cancer? What was the point of that? It was still there! Writhing, poisoning, scheming...

-That was Glen's point of view.

Being a soldier, a vigilante, hadn't devolved to an addiction for him, not by a long shot... Glen didn't ENJOY, killing, not at all...

But he didn't need to enjoy it for that horrible art to take over his life. He saw it as justified, within his own brain, and that was enough, that was all he needed to be where he was.

He had another person who loved him dearly, he had avenged his family ten fold at the rate he was going, he had saved literally planets full of people, and even though nobody knew his name, he was completely fine with that, and he could've rode off into space, and settled somewhere quiet, and grown old and died, and he would've been happy with that.

So then, why, why oh why, was he still here? Just, FIGHTING? Still killing? After all these years of devoting his very life to it, why was he still here? Taking on the impossible?

He reasoned it was all he knew how to do, but... Really, was it?

There was a great gathering of such hatred inside him, and even though Glen hadn't been wrong first, he still was here now, and he could not- for the life of him, find a way to simply let go of this boiling hatred that had forsaken his heart, his soul, his brilliant mind, and had twisted all those things into machines of war to keep fighting its battle that was never ending and unwinnable.

The cogs kept turning, blackened soot built in him, and it made him toxic, it made HIM poison, too.

 ** _PMMSKKK! Clingring..._** -Fire, screaming people, collapsing stone and concrete, smoke so thick even the electronic vision nodes on the tank had difficulty compensating.

There were bodies everywhere, underneath the tank, around the tank, ON the tank, all over the chamber in heaps and in pieces... Mariah had stopped shooting, and she had curled underneath him, and had waited for him to stop.

Glen kept strafing everything, he brought the cannon left and right, he fired the main gun at clusters of on-site staff, at soldiers, at synthetics and groups of bionics... He had driven the tank clean through three walls in one of the barracks blocks, drove right into the life support pods containments, and had nailed the cells six times.

After the fire and smoke settled from THAT mess, Glen turned around and started mowing down all of the staff and scientists in the habitation blocks he had driven through, and whoever didn't run out into the hallways beyond, or hadn't been run over or crushed by debris, was ended by killing fields Glen established with the heavy weaponry.

The slaughter of unarmed combatants.

Wasn't that murder?

But, fuck that, they were Company, they had signed up for it, and only monsters joined the ranks of things like this.

See that? How Glen's mind worked? They were unarmed, they were helpless, but it was JUSTIFIED, and that made it alright.

Who was going to stop him?

" _...Glen, please stop this._ " Mariah muttered.

"No." **_PMMKSKK! Clingring... CCMMMMMMMM!_** "-They're almost gone." -The turret whined as he rotated it, sprayed with the pulse cannon again.

" _...Please stop._ " Mariah looked at him. " _I am begging you to stop, and start driving for that hangar._ "

"..." **_PMMSKK!_**...Glen paused, yanked a new shell into the loading port. "...They're Company, Mariah..."

" _Glen, you have become obsessed with this,_ " Mariah stated. " _I can't live with you like this._ "

"...I'm not strong enough."

" _You're TOO strong._ "

"...I'm..." Glen's face was red. He hadn't cried in a long time, Mariah had only seen him cry two other times the whole time they'd been together, it was moving for her. "...I want to stop."

" _When we leave,_ " Mariah grumbled. " _I am operating that ship, and I'm flying it to a place of my choosing._ "

"...We would have never have won."

" _We HAVE won! The Company will never be able to recover after all we've done to them!_ " Mariah shook her head. " _Glen, we've done our job! We will always, have won!_ "

"...You shouldn't have come with me."

" _Where would you be, without me? I would never want to take this back._ "

"I would be dead."

" _We saved each other, Glen._ "

"...Yes." The tank jolted, concrete outside crumbled, banged off the hull everywhere. "I need to save us again, now."

" _I would never take it back._ " She reaffirmed.

"Life support and reactor are down, we have time to make it to the hangar."

" _Backing up?_ "

"Yes."

" _Watch out for the support strut, right there._ "

"I see it, bypassing."

" _What's THAT? Right there, see it?_ "

"-I-"

" _Oh no-! Glen, get the gun turned around! Shoot it!_ "

"-Fuck!"

" _Glen, QUICKLY!_ "

"I see him! I have him! Firing-"

 ** _CRRRSSHHHH!BmMMMMMM...m.m.m.m...m..._**

-Glen had something hit him in the head, really hard, something metal. Heat washed over him, he saw a bright light, than darkness, pulsating amber, he heard screaming, muffled, near drowned by a consistent ringing.

White noise.

Lots of white noise.

He couldn't feel anything on his body after the heat wave, his head hurt, but... but he KNEW it hurt, only, he couldn't actually... FEEL it.

His world was blurry, it felt like a blizzard was swimming through his mind.

He realized at one point, that the screaming he was hearing, was Mariah, and she was calling his name, again, and again, and again.

He saw light again.

His world moved.

He was being carried, shoved out of the tank, but he only saw it, he didn't feel it, he didn't hear it either.

They were outside the tank now, he could see fire, his vision flicked over the flank of the vehicle once- there was a burning gash in the rear glacis, the metal was popped open, like dynamite in a can- the turret listed to the side, the barrel hung uselessly, turned to face the back of the tank, not the front.

Mariah was right up to him, talking to him frantically, tapping his face with her claws, her tail was swinging wildly behind her.

Glen saw another blurry shape, gray and silvery, it looked almost a story tall...

It was hopping, getting closer.

No... Wait...

No, Mariah, needed to get out of... get out of the way...

Not hopping.

Stomping.

It had such big boots that the body lifted and fell with each colossal step.

He felt his lips move, but he wasn't sure if anything came out.

Mariah stopped laboring over him, and she grew frozen.

She must not have understood what he was trying to say, so, Glen thought about it, the big shape, even though he didn't know what it was, or what it was doing, or why it was gray and walking, he thought about it.

The next thing that happened, Glen didn't remember, and he didn't even realize he was doing it in his shell shocked mind- but his fist slid out, clenching his Braxis Colt, and he jammed it around Mariah's flank, and he screamed as loud as he could to her-

"RUN!"

 ** _CLK CLK CLK!_** -He drained the whole clip, a great silvery arm rose, protected the zenith of the giant's body from the rounds, and Mariah stayed by him, still screaming at him, telling him to get up, to run, to come with her...

"RUN! RUN!" Glen was a broken record player.

If Mariah had eyes, she would've been bawling. But instead, the Xenomorph leapt away, in the blink of an eye, she was just gone.

Just like she had entered Glen's life, in a second, she was forced to abandon him, in a second, besides their burning tank, in the middle of the rubble, with a fully suited, Doctor Aderen C. Tuli standing over him, waiting for the AP Launcher on the suit's wrist to rechamber a new cluster round from the one he had used to skewer the rear of the M-88 tank.

" ** _This is him, then?_** " Tuli grumbled, his voice audible from the suit's amplifiers. " ** _I want him alive, forget Subject 6, get him up, bring him to my tower, and begin lockdown procedures, I want Y-15 sealed._** "

" ** _Sir, approximately one thousand and six personnel retain vital signs throughout the subsections, sealing the site will prevent acceptable evacuation._** " A synthetic soldier- one of eight -pointed out by Tuli's flank.

" ** _The Boards will send investigative teams, they CANNOT, be told of that ship, or of Mr. Hannson's survival. Lock it down, bring all essential staff into the tower, abandon the rest, we do not have time._** "

" ** _Yes sir._** "

" ** _Subject 6 will most likely follow him for all we know... Now, quickly, get him up, upupup..._** "

Glen's world shifted and moved around again.

" ** _My child, we have much to discuss..._** "

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-


	7. Chapter 7

**_I dunno', one more chapter? Maybe? I wrote all of this in the last two hours, none stop, I think I broke my brain, it better be good, damn it._**

 ** _Gimme' a fav' or a follow if you haven't already, have an awesome-sauce day_**

 ** _~Don_**

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

"Rise and shine, Mr. Hannson, I must speak with you."

"...Oh God..." Glen had to blink a few times to clear his cloudy vision- everything was still hazy, a bit, it was nowhere near as bad as before. "...Where am I?" -He gasped.

"The north headquarters tower of Weyland Yutani's Y-15 base, my personal facility, and you are my guest."

"...Who are you?"

"Why, you were responsible for accessing our information sheets through the use of malware, were you not? Don't you know?"

"...I can't... I can't see you, you son of a bitch."

"My name, is Aderen, Aderen Tuli, and I am the director and head of the base, half of which, you are also responsible for destroying in the largest landslide I've ever seen in all my years."

Glen chuckled at that.

Hey, he wasn't totally fucking stupid when he talked about demolitions.

Guess it worked.

"...Damn Magnos Reactors..." Glen smiled. "...What made you people put one of those, in here?"

"I needed sufficient electrical power," Tuli sighed. "Though, not anymore."

"...Sorry, Doctor, I don't like you people."

"I've noticed, my child, I've noticed..." Glen heard boots on a tiled, or, maybe a metal floor... His hearing was still a little off, he couldn't determine specifically. "...Tell me about yourself why don't you?"

"...What else is there to know, Doc'? You've read my file, everyone with half a brain in Yutani has..."

"Yes, well, but off the record? It's not like I plan on letting my superiors know that you live, and that, most of all, you are in my possession."

"...What were you doing in here, Doc'? Something probably really naughty if you have to hide it from your CO's."

"I asked YOU a question first, Mr. Hannson," Tuli sounded like he was about to break something with his bare hands as he spoke, he had a degree of control that Glen certainly didn't own up to. "Picture a polite pattern, for once, there is a question and an answer, that is normal human conversation."

"I'm not a normal human."

"I've noticed..." Tuli rolled his eyes. "-If you won't offer me the pleasure of knowing about YOU, off the things from your file... Tell about Subject 6, how has it evolved? Again, Mr. Hannson, purely off the record, I'm simply... curious, curious as to how your attack hound has become so attached to you."

"...She's in command WITH me, Doc'," Glen chuckled. "-Half of the shit I did to your precious base were her ideas, I just happened to have a quick one with the reactor and the tanks. She's brilliant. More brilliant than you or me, will ever be."

"Forgive me, but I find it difficult to believe."

"Every single Board Director, Base Director, and corporation head we've killed, made the same mistake."

"And how many have you and Subject 6 killed?"

"I lost count two years ago."

"Isn't that also when you acquiesced Subject 6 as an ally?"

"Yes it is."

"Intriguing, Mr. Hannson, truly. It is interesting that, despite the fact that human civilization probably sports around, oh, maybe a few thousand trillion souls, that, really it is and will always be a small world. I've read about you, and everything you've done, and I always knew that some day, if I became as successful as I have become within the Company, I could expect a visit from you."

"Here I am, Doctor."

"Here you are, now, tell me,"

"Yes?"

"Where IS Subject 6? And, please answer this question for your own sake, it is a demand, not a request."

"What are you going to do, Tuli? Shoot me? She'll make it slow if you shoot me." Glen grinned at the blurriness around him. "She WILL find you, make no mistake on that."

"I have no doubt that she is trying, and that she will fail."

"Then you're a fool, just like every other Company leader we have destroyed."

"Tell me where the Xenomorph is, Glen."

"Fuck me if I knew, Doctor."

Tuli was quiet for a moment.

Glen heard the shifting of clothes, boots on the floor, and then- **_BSK-ZZ!_** -a sharp, burning pain ate into his ribcage.

"-GAH! God-DAMN-!" Glen jolted- he moved his arms, his legs, and found that clamps were keeping them all secured, even his head. He now realized that cold steel was beneath his bare back. He was naked, restrained, on an operating table in a dark chamber, with a single light fixture right over him.

"I'll ask again," Tuli growled, tapping the upper handle of the fork-headed standard issue shock baton he had taken up from one of his soldiers. "Subject 6, you ALWAYS know where it is, tell me, and I'll lock you back in your stasis pod, and leave you be."

"...FUCK, you."

 ** _BSK-ZZ!_**

"-GOD!-AGHH!"

"This is supposed to be very, very simple, Mr. Hannson," Tuli paced around the back of the table- Glen was breathing so heavily that his back was rising and falling onto the cold surface of the table. "-I am restraining myself from simply tearing off all your limbs, because I genuinely want to keep you alive, just that bit longer..."

"...F-For... For WHAT?" Glen gasped. "It doesn't- MATTER -to me, Tuli, the ultimate result... is my- DYING -God, damn it... Is my dying either way."

"The worst pain you have and will ever experience doesn't cow those rebellious thoughts?"

"You don't have the means to cause me the worst pain I've ever experienced!" Glen laughed out loud at him. "The worst pain? That I have ever experienced? THAT is beyond your league, Doc', it's way beyond your league."

 ** _BSK-ZZ!_**

"-FUCK!" Glen barked.

"You have taken, EVERYTHING, in no less than a few days!" Tuli snarled. "-My facility! My technology! My data, and my bionics! My CAREER! We both are in the same boat in the same storm now, Mr. Hannson!"

"...What in- God's name have you been doing here?" Glen panted. "-Those mindwiped people, that wasn't all..."

"Yes, my child, you're right, you're OH so right!" Tuli yelled- **_BSK-ZZ!_**

"-AAGGHH!"

"I had the luck of luck itself! I had attained the keys to a kind of technology you could not STAND against! I could have allowed the Company to finally track you down, and kill you, and annihilate every threat that had ever defied them!"

"-S-So WHAT? Weyland's a firm built on murderers and schemers... If you offered them a big enough ransom, they wouldn't lay a finger on you..." Glen shook his head. "-You're a confused and low man, Tuli... I might ask my friend to leave you alive so I'm the one who can cut you up..."

 ** _BSK-ZZ!_** -Glen grunted loudly, and Tuli was overcome with enough rage that he reared back with the shock baton, and jabbed it into Glen's ribs, rapidly, back and forth, like he was stabbing him.

 ** _BZ!BZBZBZBZBZ!_**

Glen stopped screaming by the time Tuli tore away.

"Transport him back to the stasis pod, secure that ship and get it in here." The Doctor snapped.

Glen tried to focus on the cool feeling of the table beneath him, not on how the baton had shocked his very nervous system, or how it had filled him with the sensation of being sea sick. Wheels on the lower frame of the table he was on creaked, he heard a tiny handheld radio going off, and a synthetic soldier responding faintly.

The blurry dark room was replaced with light again.

A ship, huh?

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pas,_**

It would have been difficult to find a proper mask that would allow persistence in the gradually decreasing levels of 'Clean 'oxygen that were ravaging the warrens of Y-15, but since her body wouldn't react in the same way a human's would, Mariah didn't have to worry about it.

It was still uncomfortable moving around in Epsilon-Candis' base atmospheric soup, and she would have preferred the filtered air that was in the base, but, seeing as half the facility had suffered an unfortunate incident of tumbling several tens of miles to the bottom of the ravine nearby, it wasn't really feasible to hope for such.

Helman's Drop now had several pillars of black soot that were rising high up into Epsilon's sky- mountains and sprawls of concrete ruins, tortured steel, sections of buildings that had broken apart, smashed Buggies and equipment, and tumbled towers formed a waterfall of a mess that was drawn down the whole flank of the ravine, and it culminated for a burning mass at the bottom.

Mariah couldn't see the wrecked pancake half the facility had become at the bottom of the valley- but from her perch, she could indeed see the ruined site of the base's foundations and where it had previously been situated.

It looked like someone had smeared a giant wad of cement down the inclining land where Y-15's main structure had been, it was just this stilled landslide of broken concrete, metals and steels, halves and chunks of hangars and bunkers, exposed hallways and building skeletons with no ceilings or walls.

It was all bedlam, lots and lots of bedlam- Glen was right, nobody in Y-15, could have survived all of that.

But, what neither of them could have known, which, was why they all were where they were- was that Doctor Tuli, the head of the base, had constructed the northern laboratory tower as a separate satellite installation to the main one, it was even built via a half-mile separation from Y-15's main foundation webs.

Tuli's northern tower was a great, colossal concrete block, littered with glowing windows that resembled medieval murder holes more than anything, concrete ribs with gigantic steel rivets along their lengths, went up and down to the tower's base and angled roof, an array of massive dishes and antennas were visible at the center top.

There was a large roadway bridge that drawled over a section of rocky badland between it and Y-15, it connected to a now blasted arch and gateway to the main facility, which had collapsed, and official sealed any ground connection between the two sites.

Still, Tuli's synthetics and some of the people he had carted with him, had managed to extract and transport this 'Mystery' that the Doctor had even hidden from the rest of Weyland Yutani.

Mariah, perched on the top of one of the northern tower's concrete buttresses, the ones lining the base, digging into the tan and red earth of Epsilon-Candis at least eight stories below- watched from her height, which was level with the right flank of the bridge, as a truck and ground team carted the item.

The truck was one of those rover models, it was mainly designed for offroad fringe colony work, or for lunar colonies on moons lacking atmospheres- it had a bubble like cockpit with four ribbed wheels, and it was connected to a flatbed section behind it with three wheels, and another behind that, each by mag-hooks, like a tractor-trailer.

The first bed held nothing spectacular, it was all storage crates and mobile console machines, stacked and stuffed together in a big block of salvage- but the rear and last bed, had a whole ship on it, resting on its belly.

Now here was where this really still WAS a mystery, even though she could see it plain as day.

That ship wasn't human made.

It looked almost like an arrow head, it was rounded and bulbous at the rear, with three engine mouths sticking out, their burners rims lined with sharp fins of metal. A spine of thin metal also ran down from the tip of the ship's pointy noise, to the back just above the engines, and two large triangular wings spanned both flanks of the vessel, originating from thick stilts jutting from the ribs of the ship.

There was no discernible cockpit or place where a pilot could enter- there was plated metal where a cab should have been, and there were two side hatches of some sort on either flank, both sealed, the bed it was being transported on was barely big enough to fit the whole ship.

Mariah, for all the grief she was going through, was able to examine this vessel and the people moving it with a strategic eye- THAT, was the ship that they needed, because she knew where the ship held origin from, and Glen would know too once he saw it.

He was still alive, that was the only reason she hadn't gone apeshit, and hadn't completely abandoned her sense of tactical approach. She hadn't been able to communicate with him, they were too far away from each other, but she could always sense him being alive, maybe not being so well, but alive.

She had managed to slip out of a duct into one of Y-15's filtration chutes, and she had followed it to a reinforced vent cover, which she smashed through, and fled into the badlands. Following Glen's mental presence, she had to take a whole mile-long journey around Y-15's westward flank, and she had also been forced to wait out a literal earthquake before beginning her traveling.

It took maybe twenty minutes after her escape for most of the facility to start losing its foundation after the reactor suffered several secondary blasts, which fractured support beams and girder webs that were keeping heavier sections suspended from a fateful drop into the ravine next door.

Once all those had gone, nothing was stopping the base from sliding down to oblivion.

Like she had experienced, only twenty minutes, and then the reactor was buried, and the explosions ceased, she could still hear pieces of the facility suffering smaller explosions, and she could still hear massive quantities of material tumbling down the ravine for miles, all for the entirety of her trek.

The destruction of Y-15 had been awesome in its terrifying presentation of wanton ruin, Glen was right, again, and they had traveled the depths of a great beast and had stabbed the heart, killing it.

This wasn't a cause for joy or celebration though, because technically if things had gone ENTIRELY to plan, they should have been in space by now.

She eventually departed her observation of the alien spacecraft, as it vanished under another archway leading to the basement sublevels of the tower- she used her claws to almost adhere to the surface of the tower, and she started climbing.

One of the tiny slot windows that were unevenly speckled on the mostly featureless, and immense concrete surface of the tower was her goal, and from a distance, she was so small in comparison to the overall structure, that she looked like a tiny black speck.

With the amount of people that Tuli had saved from Y-15's destruction, the tower was- kind of known to her, she was still uncertain -it was understaffed, and under populated, running at full capacity with around a properly sized workforce of a thousand on-site staff, Tuli had only saved a few hundred, those he deemed 'Irreplaceable.'

No one saw her scaling the north tower, and no one saw a tiny window become darkened in her looming shadow on the fiftieth floor.

Mariah peered through the tinted glass, and saw a darkened room beyond, but, she deemed it safe by the lack of motion within.

She reared back the bladed tip of her tail, it flowed and straightened in a 'U' shape over her shoulder, like a snake, and then she rammed it forwards.

 ** _Pmmkk_**

-The blade blunted off to the side, and she hissed from the impact, but a noticeable crack was created on the window's pane.

She brought her tail back again, lined it up, slammed it forwards again.

 ** _Pmmk_**

-And again.

 ** _Pmmk_**

 ** _Pmmk_**

 ** _Pmmk-! Cshk.._**

 ** _Pmm-CRSSHHHH!_** -It shattered inwards, sprayed the chamber beyond with a cloud of glittering specks of glass.

Mariah slipped in, like water flowed through a crack, it was in the blink of an eye- immediately, the darkened office beyond was highlighted crimson, and beeping was heard as an alarm was set off from the contaminated oxygen entering the cell.

Mariah unwound from the ground to see she was standing in a room full of consoles, desks and work chairs- a tiny bulb was flickering bright red in the center of the ceiling- there was a doorframe at the end of the room, and it was slowly becoming enveloped by a lowering security bulkhead plate.

The Xenomorph scrambled across the floor, and she slid underneath the sealing plate right before it clapped into the frame's base, and locked the room away from contaminating the rest of the atmosphere in the tower.

Mariah, on all fours from her desperate leap- looked around herself, turning her lithe, pill-shaped head back and forth, her tail coiling in impatience and anxiousness. She was in a hallway, dark, untended to by anyone it seemed- Tuli probably had his staff dedicated solely to transporting the alien ship, watching Glen, and getting the life support systems for the tower running.

That left her in a predicament, because the alarm she set off would undoubtedly not go unnoticed.

She moved quickly down the hall to the left- scurrying faster than any human could -she stuck to two legs this time, she could run almost as fast, and she wanted her fingers free for such close quarters.

She passed lots of sealed bulkheads, other halls, a staircase descending downwards, eventually, she reached what looked like a chamber filled with larger computers, the bulkhead slid aside for her without incident, and there was an unmanned security kiosk by the frame.

She checked her flanks and passed inside the dark chamber- within, she saw a large screen hung on the northern wall of the room, connected to a line of consoles underneath it, there was a holo-table, unused and dark, in the center of the chamber, its projection top colored brass, and unlit.

Maybe there was a console in here that she could access, to try and find some kind of schematic, or a layout of the building, that's what Glen would've done.

But...

She looked down at her claws.

...It wouldn't end well for the computer if SHE tried typing.

She wished she could sense Glen, talk to him, get an idea what they were doing to him...

Maybe if... Maybe if she got closer, Glen could tell her where he was.

Yes. THAT, was what she needed to do, these computers wouldn't help her, she couldn't use them. So that's what Mariah did, she trekked the halls and ducts of the north tower, she slaughtered anyone who got in her way, and through her drive to reach Glen, she...

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

-Got them to where they were, today, here and now, running through the north tower, trying to reach an alien ship that neither knew how to pilot, or knew if it even worked.

But it was their only shot.

Resistance in their push for where Tuli had stowed his prize was minimal, at best- Glen and Mariah had inflicted so many casualties in their time here, that they were starting to run out of people to shoot back at them, most of their travel, they didn't see anyone at all.

"He's keeping the ship in a launch silo," Glen said, the two of them hurrying down a hallway. "Silo-9A."

" _How do you know? I thought you were this guy's prisoner this whole time?_ "

"I overheard it." Glen shrugged.

" _That's... Stupid..._ " Mariah smiled toothily.

"People say a lot of things when they think you're out for the count." Glen said. "I did what you did, I just listened."

" _I'm so glad you're alright._ "

"Tell me about it, I only had to wait all that time, knowing you were alone against a cadre of armed soldiers trying to reach me." Mariah was giving him a look, and Glen gave her a grin. "Thanks."

" _How far are we from this ship, you ungrateful jerk?_ "

"Elevators and a whole lot of other mechanical devices aren't working the tower, Tuli never tuned them up, there's an emergency stairwell up ahead, we'll cut through the storage space and into the silo's left blast vent."

" _Blast vent?_ "

"They're normally used for rockets, remember those big oil-tank looking structures on the side of the tower? We're going to take that ship and blast a hole in the ceiling, fly out of it."

" _I won't ask if you're confident about this one, seeing as the LAST plan went so according to the book!_ " Mariah scoffed, they rounded a corner, Glen shoulder-checked a manually opened door open, and the two were quickly going down a metal row of green-colored steps. " _How many flights?_ "

"I don't know." Glen watched as she leapt over the railing to the flight directly below, he took a moment longer and rounded the railing.

" _You can't not know!_ "

"I know which DOOR it is," Glen glanced about the pulse rifle he had used to blast Tuli's suit with. "-Do you think I killed him?"

" _Who?_ "

"Tuli."

" _I have no idea, and I don't care! Where is this door? We need to leave!_ "

"There it is!"

Another manual door, this time, Mariah was the first one to barge through it.

They emerged into a darkened chamber, with a grate floor, and gunmetal walls, it was at least two stories tall, gridded with faintly working light fixtures above. Large shipping containers formed aisles in this room, the storage space- Glen and Mariah's goal was a small pill-shaped door just ahead, it was opened by a crank wheel, and painted all over with yellow hazard patterns.

"There's the door!" Glen pointed. "Come on!"

Boots and claws against the metal floor, clunking hurriedly, the two ran across half the room, sidestepping a big rectangular crate left in the center of the open expanse, it was marked with a big, white 'WY' symbol, mocking them, almost.

 ** _Bm-CRSKKK!_** -Something steel tore, and bolts flew off hinges, rattled all over the place, giant metallic heels thundered into the chamber.

" ** _COME BACK HERE, SIX!_** "

-A garage door like bulkhead, at the far eastern side of the chamber, was torn raggedly in half, with shreds of its construction going airborne as a cloud of debris falling away from the exo suit of Aderen Tuli, scorched, kicking sparks out of its joints, thoroughly damaged by this point beyond repair.

Glen stopped short in his run- he turned around and saw the rampaging Doctor.

" _Glen?! What are you doing?! Get back here!_ " Mariah was by the door, she had her claws over the crank wheel.

"-Find a way to start that ship!" Glen pointed to her. "I'll distract him!"

" _Can you- PLEASE, stop playing hero!_ " Mariah was practically sobbing. " _I'm BEGGING you, Glen! PLEASE!_ "

"Get the ship started! It should be touch activated inside the cockpit! Go!"

" _How do you know?!_ "

Glen had already turned around.

" ** _I won't let you escape! You're dying WITH me! You've trapped us here! That ship, doesn't even FUNCTION without me and my scientists' expertise!_** "

"Fuck off, Tuli!"

 ** _Thwmp!_**

 ** _BMMMMKK!_** -Glen fired off his last grenade in the rifle's launcher, he didn't aim for the main cab, he hit the arm with Tuli's armor piercing cluster shot in the wrist, blew off the claw in a mangled, sparking heap- it flipped away from the bloom of shrapnel and fire, Tuli reeled back, his arm sagging.

" ** _DIE, HANNSON! DIE!_** "

 ** _CLK!_**

-Tuli's robotic foot came down, Glen rolled away, the heel leaving a cracked dent in the deck he once stood over.

The vigilante fell to a kneel, and he drained the pulse rifle's clip into the cab section of the suit, the rounds bouncing around, penetrating the weakened plating- Glen didn't see it, but one of them planted itself right into Tuli's gut, he REAL gut.

The Doctor had blood shooting out of his mouth whenever he screamed, and now, there was a splotch of his own life that stained the jumpsuit around his stomach, another round had hit him in the shoulder, he was shot at least three or four times.

On top of the injuries sustained from the grenade that had hit the cab earlier, he was going to be finished, he knew that too, his only goal was to take his killer with him.

" ** _-I've lived- A LIFE, of progress- at the end of a scalpel-!_** " -Tuli gasped- his one claw left, the one Glen hadn't blown off, swinging in an overhead arc, and missing the vigilante whilst he ducked his body forwards, and vanished between the suit's legs. " ** _-I have- I have attained primordial powers- meant for GODS- and I will- not have them taken away, unless YOU are dead with them-!_** "

* * *

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

Mariah became impatient with the bulkhead when it refused to open.

 ** _PLmKKK! ringiring..._** -So she rammed it off of its hinges with a few jabs of her tail.

Flicking the blade from the strain, the hybrid Xenomorph surged into the chamber beyond, it was rounded, cylinder like, and it vanished to blackness to the east, and lead to a source of light to the west. She opted for west.

Following the gray, rounded, pipe-like mass of the tunnel, she was met with an upright, tall, cylindrical cell, lined with grated metal surfaces, and topped with a roof of two retractable bulkhead doors- she had found the silo, just like Glen had said.

Above, there was a row of windows from an observation office, probably meant for monitoring launches of any rockets- but today, in absence of a rocket, the center of the cell, which dropped for a pit of blackness, centered by a dial platform connected to a surrounding, railing-line ring by two walkways, was host to a hastily placed alien ship.

The ship was lain across the tiny platform, the motor pool doors at the side of the silo's base nearby, long closed from where the ground team had transported it in.

Mariah stopped to look about the silo again, she hurried across the grated floor, and came to the edge of one of the thin walkways that lead to the ship's flank, laid over the center platform- she looked over the railing, and was unable to see a bottom to the black pit below her.

The Xenomorph swallowed, looked back up at the alien ship, and then scrambled across the walkway, which was almost too narrow for her fit in between the railings.

Metal rung as he leant into the coppery hide of the alien spacecraft, at the side hatch, and she looked around for something, ANYTHING, to get it open.

" _Oh, God damn it, damn it, DAMN it!_ " She panicked, seeing nothing but the flat surface of the plated door. " _Open! Open! Oh, GLEN, I'll kill him after we're both dead! I'll kill him after he's killed! That- STUPID-!_ "

- ** _PLUNG!_**

-She punched the bulkhead.

 ** _whhhhHHHMMM-SMK-SMK_**

 ** _CLSS-SHM-SHNT_**

-The door folded away into the flank of the ship, revealing a dark, hazy interior, pulsating crimson from an unseen light source.

Mariah, having jumped back from the sudden noise and movement- slowly developed a toothy grin about herself.

" _...M-Maybe it DOES help to be angry sometimes..._ "

"-Holy shit..."

Mariah wheeled around, and, standing right behind her, was Glen, and he had lost his rifle somewhere, and he was too busy gawking at the alien ship to really give her much more than a glance at first.

" _Glen! Thank God- get inside-!_ "

"-Do you know what this thing is?"

" _It's our ride out of here, let's go!_ "

"-But, there have only been two or three that people have-"

" _GLEN! If you don't shut up, and get inside this alien ship, and pilot us out of here- I'll pick you up and throw you down the pit, and start a new fucking life without a second thought to it!_ "

"...You make a valid argument." He looked back at her. "You're sexy when you're being bossy."

The Xenomorph grabbed him up and practically threw him inside the ship.

 ** _bRSSMKK!..._** -Metal and concrete tore and collapsed somewhere nearby.

" _Glen, how do we pilot this thing?_ "

"...Uhm... Usually... Uhm..."

" _Focus!_ "

"-Yeah-yeah! -Uhm... I'm trying to remember the data we had found, on Thraka, remember?"

" _Data isn't going to help us! FLYING, will!_ "

"Okay, here-" Glen had to bow down in the cramped, oval-like hold of the interior of the ship. There was a small walk and cubby space immediately after the hatch they had entered, and to the left, were two command chairs, thin, and padded with leathery looking material, an array of triangular computer monitors and touchscreens formed an opened palm right ahead of them, with some on floor and ceiling level.

Glen shrugged between the chairs, and he threw his legs over the one on the left- found it to be an odd fit, and his prior knowledge of this type of craft, told him why.

"-I think it's..." Glen swept his hands over two consoles in the center of the array.

 ** _"Clinvolum ves tissvam. Alokt."_** -A drabbled, robotic voice echoed in the dark cockpit, everything bloomed to life at once.

All the consoles glowed drab red, tiny buttons flickered on as bulbs of orange and yellow, the side hatch- still ajar, clamped and thundered shut, and the whine of engines was apparent.

Mariah was looking about the interior, and she settled for watching Glen as he struggled to operate the touch screens on the consoles before him, he clumsily laid back in the command seat, his fingers tapping and swiping on the screens.

"Damn it, wrong one..."

" _Are we airborne yet?!_ " She nagged.

"Here it is."

 ** _"Selaam. Alokt._** "

-The bland, plated space just ahead of the consoles, suddenly bloomed crimson, and before either of them knew it- a similar panorama view to that of the M-88 tank they had stolen, materialized as a holographic representation of the ship's frontal surroundings, it looked kind of like heat vision, everything was 'Blobby' and misshapen, hued red or yellow.

That explained the lack of a cockpit.

 ** _"Selaam ves na. Tellefem ves bortoram. Alokt._** "

"- _What's it saying?_ "

"-Look." Glen pointed for the vision feed.

Stumbling into the flank of the silo, was a giant humanoid of steel and robotics, having smashed clean through the wall dividing the auxiliary blast chute from the storage chambers, Aderen Tuli pursued the only thing that mattered anymore in his final moments of his corrupt life, and that was killing Glen Hannson.

The Doctor stumbled across the grated decking as not only his exo' started to fail, but his own bodily systems were shutting down.

Coughing up blood, convulsing inside the cab from the unbearable pain all over his body, shot to hell, riddled with shrapnel and burn wounds- the mighty suit thundered the entire chamber as it fell to its knees.

Back inside the alien ship, Glen snorted, and he swept his hands about few more runes on the screens.

 ** _Fwhm-Vmmmmmmmm..._** -The ancient engines of the alien vessel roared to life, the fins lining the mouths of the exhaust centers spread, and the openings bloomed yellow light.

" _Finally..._ " Mariah slouched back against the interior wall behind him. " _Oh that was... Oh that was horrible, Glen..._ "

"Yeah." Glen flicked his fingers over another rune.

 ** _Thnk-cnk_**

-He primed a pair of weapons, unknown in terminology or classification by human science or military knowledge, two tiny little barrels that jutted out from the undersides of the struts connecting the ship's triangular wings to the fuselage.

 ** _Stik_** -An aiming and firing handle snapped out of its hold between the two head consoles. Glen took it up one handed, moved it about, and on the holographic screen ahead, a yellow diode rotated and spun to life, descending from above, like a snowflake, and it centered over Tuli's crippled suit.

-Outside, the Doctor knew what sound he had heard, he had, after all, been experimenting with that ship for months after he had broken every rule in the book, and had stolen it from his own Company's shipping.

THAT, was why he never could've gone back.

That was why, even if Glen hadn't won, he was still doomed.

Tuli sat up in his cockpit, and he watched the alien ship rise off the platform, hovering in the center of the silo, giving off a mattress beneath its belly of translucent heat waves.

" ** _...As every King to the hands of his own people..._** " Tuli vomited a drawling stain of crimson onto the glass of his cab, he heaved again, and added another traveling, sinewy string. " ** _-Immolate me._** " -He choked.

Glen pressed the center rune on the back of the handle.

 ** _KWHM KWHM KWHM KWHM KWHM_** -Sharp bolts of green energy lashed from the tiny cannons on the underside of the ship's wings, they crossed the distance between ship and suit in a second, and tore into Tuli with abandon.

The suit jerked left, then right, then left again- each pair of bolts tore away more and more in collapsing, tiny avalanches of vaporizing, molten metal and flames.

Glen sneered and sprayed the Doctor for all he was worth- the cab popped like a fiery balloon, the one arm was torn away, the hips fractured and were tossed back like a cloud of glitter, the legs wilted, and whatever hadn't been directly hit by the cannons, melted from the sheer heat and became part of the silo floor.

Glen let off the rune, the cannons grew silent after the last beam.

Outside, before the nose of the craft, the fearsome, and evil Doctor Aderen C. Tuli, was nothing more but a skidmark outside, a glob of blackened metal, flanked by holes in the deck from beams that tore clean through and kept going.

It was done.

Glen sighed shakily, and Mariah slowly reclined from where she had watched the display over his shoulder.

" _...Are you okay?_ "

"Good." Glen grunted. "I'm good."

" _You wanna' leave now?_ "

"You sure don't sound like you're in a hurry anymore." Mariah liked it that he smiled when he said that, lifted her spirits a bit. The ship yawned, metal moaned, the engines purred, the holo-view now showed the bulkhead doors above, keeping them in the silo.

" _I didn't think..._ "

"You really want to leave, I understand, I want to leave too."

 ** _KWHM KWHM KWHM KWHM KWHM_**

-A large portion of the door to the left was torn away in fire and flakes of metal, the dull, bleak sky of Epsilon-Candis, was visible beyond that flaming breach.

"It's like the gates of heaven just opened for us."

" _Can we fit through there?_ "

"Mostly."

 ** _fwhhHWM-_** -The ship rocked heavily, forcing Mariah to grip the back of Glen's chair- they shot towards the opening, and then, there was a shudder, an impact of metal, and all they could both see was the dreary sky of the desolate and dead world.

Glen tapped a few more keys on the touch screens, and he sighed happily.

Behind them, the barren waste that was Y-15 got smaller and smaller, as the overhead view of the planet's tanned, and dry land got broader and broader. The alien ship was no completely unknown to Glen, as, he wouldn't have been able to pilot it without such past reference from the Navy's own information.

They were speeding for the upper atmosphere, and tiny blips confirming functionality in non-atmospheric systems were coming to life on some of the screens.

" _...I missed the feeling of space..._ " Mariah breathed, leaning her head forwards, and nudging into Glen's temple. " _...I love you._ "

"I love you too," Glen shut his eyes. "...I'm flying to Egotas."

" _The forest moon?_ "

"Yes."

" _That's in the neighboring QUADRANT,_ " She smiled. " _That's a long ride._ "

"I'll make it, Yaujta ships don't have fuel. It's the batteries."

" _Where are we gonna' go once we get there?_ "

"How about one of the beaches?"

" _That sounds amazing._ "

"I can't wait."

Glen ran his finger up one of the holo-dials on the screen to the right, it was the engine thrusters, and soon, the sky above was turning black as night, and then, it became speckled with a silvery network of a million stars, none of which, Glen was interested in visiting this fine day.

He's seen enough alien worlds.

For now.

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _Pres,_**

The mysterious Yaujta race.

Glen and Mariah didn't really know a lot about them, not many people did. They were an advanced species, they had engaged in sporadic and brutal skirmishes with particularly isolated groups of humans, before the Navy upped its game and started mopping the floor with them.

The hunters had turned into the HUNTED, and, really, even after humans had remained victorious, there wasn't a sense of triumph and 'Sticking it' to the aliens, there was just an atmosphere of 'What was the point?' -and that was up in the air for debate for a variety of reasons.

It was a cultural aspect of the Yaujta peoples to hunt 'Game' organisms, whether they were sentient or not, everybody knew that... But, the Yaujta were just as, if not more fractured than humanity was- there were no two groups of them that were working towards the same ideals or goals, they shot each other just as much as the humans.

Glen could only go off of what he had personally seen and experienced- which wasn't much on this topic -and what information the Navy and the Company had gathered, the Navy more so, seeing as they were the ones who got all the corpses and wrecks they made after quelling incidents.

Glen had a general sense of how to operate their equipment, it was part of the training programs they had uncovered on Thraka, so, by the grace of luck, he was able to use that scout ship as a means to escape the crumbling remains of Y-15 back on Epsilon-Candis.

With all of their data lost, and a few thousand employees and staff dead, the fort ruined, Tuli being killed, and all his valuable research and equipment tarnished, the Company probably would never be able to replace the assets lost on the dead world.

In addition to the tech and people losses, the money losses were staggering, and those were the fuels that kept Yutani alive and floating- funds, bright minds and people, and information, Glen and Mariah had deprived them of a massive reserve of all these things.

Glen was just... Happy, that it was over, that they had won. He was actually HAPPY, and that was a miracle itself, Glen's negative energy, built up after all this time, it felt far away for once, distant, a shadow of its former rising height.

It took them maybe a week's worth of solar travel to exit the Forlorn Star sector, alongside the Goat's Eye Nebula, to the sector of Thetan, where Egotas was located, in the Simm System, orbiting the Gas Giant Tu'Lon.

They had visited Egotas a few times before, as, it was on the fringes of human space, past the Outer Sphere colonies, it had been sparsely touched by a few corporate operations, mostly mining and remote agricultural endeavors, but Egotas was still wild, and unsettled, and Glen and Mariah would rest there sometimes for months.

The planet made Glen feel younger, it was a refreshing change from what he usually felt like, it was an adventurous tinge to things, different, new and good, finding Likju berries, and Xee melons to eat, and hunting some of the Egotatian six legged deer- they had food, water, peace and quiet.

Of course there was always risk, there were nasty predators that lived on Egotas, like the Spine Bears that lived in the western continent of the three- most of the landmarks and places they had discovered and explored were still unnamed.

They had probably parked tens of different kinds of ships and haulers that they had either acquired or stolen from the Company and a variety of other cartels and warbands and all kinds of other horrible stuff. But the commonality had been, they always landed on Egotas with a HUMAN, ship.

Not this time around.

Glen had landed the Yaujta scout ship, settled with Mariah near this beautiful pond in the middle of the Francisc Woods- one of the few places mapped on the planet via corporations that had farmed nearby in the past.

There was a noticeable attitude change in Glen after the first day, and the first night. He wasn't always so grim faced, stoic, and quick with his words, he started talking regularly again, he started eating more, and his skin wasn't as pale.

Surely, it wasn't all fantasy land, gumdrops and mindless vacationing- Glen was doing his fair share of research and examinations of the Yaujta ship, and for the life of him he could not find any kind of identification as to its class, who it belonged to, or where it had been built, nothing at all.

He would fumble around inside the ship for a few hours, try to access logs and files on the ship's consoles, he'd run certain systems to test them, and he would practice the flight controls by locking an orbit pattern a few feet off the ground, just to get a feel for the craft.

All and all it was fast, agile, and it had tremendous hitting power- pretty decent for a scout craft meant for only one or two occupants.

How Tuli had acquired the ship was at first, beyond him- but Glen did some digging, and it turned out, that Tuli had had good reason to keep it under lock and key, even from his own staff. He had committed an act of piracy, against his own people.

The Company had found the ship crashed and unoccupied on the temperate world of Iosuth, basically on the other side of the Milky Way- they had been carting it to, you guessed it, Thraka, when an unidentified hauler disabled, boarded, and stole the Yaujta ship out of the Company freighter transporting it.

Tuli had hidden the crime well, and he had moved it to his personal labs on Y-15 in Epsilon-Candis- he obviously had done a good job of covering it up, the Company had no idea the whole time. Though, while the ship probably would have ended up in their hands anyway- whether at Epsilon or Thraka, Glen was aware that he and Mariah had a guardian overlooking them back there.

He was just relieved that they had pulled it off, and neither of them had paid that final price, like he was always afraid of.

...What would he have done with himself if THAT had happened?

The thought of it, just-

" _Are you still in here?_ "

"-Ehm, yeah. Yes." -Glen had to peel his eyes from the red drab surface of the holo screen on the ship's main dashboard, he looked over at the ajar side hatch, streaming in fading light from the ending day outside, the tendrils of illumination bypassing around Mariah's outline.

The Xenomorph leant against the frame, and she was toothily grinning at him, she had her tail in a claw, and was running the spines between her fingers until the blade slipped out, and she's reapply and repeat the process.

" _Talk to me._ " She chirped.

"How are you feeling?" Glen ducked and uncurled from the command seats- Mariah parted from the frame and bid him to follow her back outside.

" _Good._ " She answered quickly. " _I was just thinking about something different. Interesting._ "

"Oh?"

" _You never told me when your 'Birthday' was, do you know that?_ "

"My Birthday?" Glen blinked stupidly, standing in the swaying grass around the belly of the ship. "...I don't know, Mariah, I never kept track of that."

" _Oh, me neither._ "

"Other people would be shocked if I said that to them." Glen chuckled. "That is a common thing to keep track of."

" _Well loved ones give you presents, and credits, right?_ "

"It is kind of like Christmas, in a sense, yes."

" _You're thirty, around, you said?_ "

"Something around there, yes." They both sat in the grass, surrounded by golden trees, given the view of an expansive pond that splayed just ahead of them, reflecting the dusk sky above, and the descending highlighted outline of Tu'Lot, the Gas Giant that Egotas orbited. "That is beautiful."

" _A purple gas giant..._ " Mariah mused. " _Have you ever seen that before?_ "

"I've seen Jovians every color of the spectrum."

" _I've seen gray, blue, green, cyan, tan, brown... Never purple._ "

"I think it looks more pink."

" _Pink, purple, they're all on the same side._ "

"Agreed."

" _Hmm._ "

"...You know, Mariah," Glen crossed his arms over his knees, looked at her. "-I have seen so many amazing things across this galaxy, you know that, right? We both have, together, separately, a lot of things."

" _Maybe TOO many things,_ " The Xenomorph leant back on her palms, draped her chin over her black shoulder. " _I know what you're about to say._ "

"Aw, well, that removes any dramatic impact I was aiming for."

" _You're right, there isn't anything you've seen that's more amazing than ME, you're dead right._ " Mariah laughed, her tail coiling. " _... You compliment too much._ "

"I do?"

" _Lesson number one, Glen, no female can have a limit to the number of compliments you offer her._ "

"Guess I'm pretty decent on that tab."

" _Tab, hm?_ "

"It keeps you around."

" _YOU keep me around._ "

"It's the cologne, isn't it?"

" _It covers up your stench, just enough._ "

"Men stink."

" _Oh they do..._ "

Glen scooted over in the grass, and Mariah was laughing as he slipped on arm over her ribbed back, hooking his fingers by her hip.

"What do you think we should name this lake?"

" _It isn't named?_ " She practically tipped over and sprawled over his flank, her head jamming under his chin- it was her favorite form of contact with him, she always did that whenever they were sitting with each other, just chatting, it was nice to do something simple, just to sit and talk about nonsense, and drabble, and... It was great.

"No. The explorers never reached it."

" _But the woods are named?_ "

"Yes."

" _That's stupid._ "

"Out of whack."

" _We should name it something funny._ "

"Funny?"

" _A nonsense name? Maybe?_ "

"Nonsense name... Uhm..." Glen thought for a moment. "-Blahblah Lake?"

" _-Ha! Do that- HA-HA! -Make that noise again!_ "

"What noise?"

" _BLAH-Blah... You sound highly amusing._ "

"Blah-Blah?"

" _Nono- the way you did it before._ "

"BlahBlah Lake."

" _Haha! YES! That way!_ " The Xenomorph made a few tiny hissing noises- it was her way of physically chuckling. " _Do it again._ "

"BlahBlah Lake."

" _Ha!_ "

"Is it really that entertaining?"

" _For me it is._ "

"What if I put some extra effort into it? What if I said it heroically?"

" _Oooo... Do it._ "

"BlahBlah Lake! We must travel yonder!"

" _HA! Ha-ha! HA! O-OH Glen, that's- you sound ridiculous!_ "

"You asked me to."

" _And I don't regret it!_ "

"Neither do I."

" _...Hey,_ "

"Yes?"

" _-Glen, I don't think you're a bad person._ "

"...I... Why would I think you did?"

" _I was... I FELT some of the... Turmoil? I think it felt like turmoil, going on in your head over the last few days we were flying here..._ "

"Which specific turmoil? I have a lot of that."

" _Your feelings about killing._ "

"...I don't want to talk about killing anymore."

" _Now I'm not asking you, I never will, I just want you to know, that, no matter what, you always will be the most important person in my life. You saved me._ "

"...Sometimes I remember that day, in the lab, when I glanced you with the gun."

" _What else were you supposed to do? I was going to try and hurt you, it was self-defense._ "

"No- I mean, yes, I-"

" _You don't have to feel bad about that at all._ "

"It isn't that I feel 'Bad' about what happened, but sometimes I remember you lying on the floor, wounded, and it is a powerful and heart wrenching image for me to recollect."

" _...It'll never happen again, though._ "

"I know it won't, but a lot of things haunt me, Mariah. You make me the person I am, you help me to cage in all those things, keep them from hurting me, and you."

" _Your good luck charm._ " She bumped under his chin with her head. " _It's one of the reasons you fell for me!_ "

"As a good luck charm?"

" _I have MAGICAL powers, Glen, don'tchya' know?_ "

"I just thought you were hot."

" _'WERE' hot?_ "

"ARE hot."

" _Careful there, I can still hack it off._ "

"You would hack off your favorite part of me?"

" _My SECOND favorite part, you barbarian._ "

"What's the first?"

" _Your heart._ "

"...That's sweet."

" _Mmhmm._ "

"I think I love all of you evenly, just as much, just as big."

" _Suck up._ "

"I'll be a suck up every day for you."

" _I know._ "

In the grass of Egotas, the second night of their time here passed, and with it, the memories of Epsilon were put aside, not abolished, but forgotten in the haze of being together, of being away from all the things that had been dividing them.

They had some elements to reforge, and, maybe one of those elements was the thing that Mariah had always asked of him since day one.

It was alongside her usual request.

'Talk to me.'

-Well, Mariah had always asked him to-

'Fall for me.'

-He had fallen for her every day since he had met her, no questions there.

They looked on at the unnamed lake of Egotas, with a sheen of pinkish reflection down its center from the overhead, and faded Jovian planet, they focused on each other's body heat, and basked in it.

Unknown to Glen and Mariah, back inside the Yaujta ship, not even a few feet away behind them, inside the pilot's cabin, one of the touch screen consoles flickered to life, and released a quiet, forlorn **_beep_** -sound.

A yellow light pulsating on the screen, and a remote device had been activated without either of their knowledge, from a party that was a far cry from the Company they had faced for the last two years. This presence was aware.

It was a tracking device.

* * *

 ** _-0-0-0-0-0-_**

-0-0-0-0-0-

 ** _~Fin~_**

-0-0-0-0-0-

* * *

 ** _-And that's all I have left to say._**

 ** _I finally finished this, one last short chapter to finalize the ending, uploaded same day as the prior chapter, so the wait hopefully wasn't too horrendous. My God I'm so happy I'm done with this story, hopefully I can get the numbers to go up like I did the first one in the series, I had so much trouble writing this for whatever reason, and it basically took me a year, so it's gotta' pay off for something for me right? Lol_**

 ** _I made a cover for the sequel to 'Worse than a pair of Handcuffs' -so if you liked this story, I think you'll like the Fallout story I have going on, give it a try._**

 ** _As always, thanks for reading my work, have an awesome-sauce day_**

 ** _~Don_**


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